"I think the difference here is that the rioters don't think of themselves as French,"
If you speak French, go online to France Info and watch the news reports. You will see interviews with many of these rioters. They will tell you that they are French and that they have been excluded from their own country and it's not fair and they're going to break things until they get what's their due.
You'll see a guy named Mohammed hold up his national ID card and say "I've sent out 70 CVs, but with this name, I cannot ever get a job, and that's why I'm doing this. It's not right."
And they are telling the truth, both of them. That's why they're doing it. Mohammed really can't get a job in France. His parents so named him, and thereby doomed him to unemployment. He is French, but EXCLUDED.
The riots are happening because of social exclusion.
How do you FIX that?
The only way is to get people jobs, to loosen the job laws so that companies can hire workers without marrying them forever.
But try to change those laws in order to create jobs, and you will have strikes more massive and widespread than the current Beur unrest.