Are residents of French housing projects really "banished" to their neighborhoods and kept in "confinement" there? Does living there have nothing but adverse effects on their integration into society? Pierre Gilbert argues that empirical studies to date fall far short of bearing out this portrayal of French housing projects as "ghettos". And yet this very "ghetto" image has served as the basis for the overhaul of urban policy over the past decade and the ensuing urban renewal program in France.