In, among others, La France Périphérique, Guilluy argues that the true losers in French society are the 60 per cent of the population who can't afford the rents in gentrified city centres where the elite live; who don't want to live in the banlieues (inner-city suburbs) among recent immigrants; and are pushed by property prices further away – to mid-sized towns with few jobs and little opportunity, and old brownfield developments between the true countryside and the large cities where most companies elect to move. Unlike the difficult banlieues, where in addition to a genuine economic pull, the state pours money, builds infrastructure, subsidises schools and develops an entire benefits structure to try to assimilate the newcomers, the peripheral areas, where no rioting takes place, receive little attention and not much help.