The Living Environment of Immigrants and Their Descendants: Perceived Discrimination and Segregation

This chapter looks at the living environment of immigrants and their descendants and the characteristics of the neighbourhoods where they live. As in other European countries, immigrants in France tend to live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with a degree of concentration that varies by city or town of residence and above all by origin. People of sub-Saharan and North African origin live mainly in densely populated residential areas. Alongside people of Turkish origin, they frequently live in neighbourhoods with high unemployment and above-average proportions of immigrants, so they more often report living in a mainly “ethnic” neighbourhood, especially if it is disadvantaged. However, they are distributed across the entire social spectrum of these neighbourhoods, and their residential mobility is both quantitatively and qualitatively high, despite the experience of “downward mobility” for some. European immigrants and their descendants are pursuing the process of residential incorporation. Several types of social-spatial environments co-exist in France, with a very “white” rural habitat at one extreme, contrasting sharply with the multi-ethnic and segregated urban spaces that correspond in part to the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Reported ethnic discrimination in housing is relatively limited (9% for sub-Saharan Africans and North Africans) but probably under-estimated by those concerned