Promoting Diversity in French Workplaces: Targeting and Signaling Ethnoracial Origin in a Colorblind Context

The author analyzes the implementation of diversity policies in France within a traditionally colorblind institutional and cultural context. Using a mixed-method research design, the author focuses on a specific diversity program, gathering qualitative and quantitative data on persons involved in its implementation as well as on its recipients. The author also collects qualitative materials covering institutional actors (governmental services and state agencies) and field actors (associations and economic organizations). The analyses aim to investigate two main questions: (1) What are the population categories targeted by diversity programs, and how are they referred to in the colorblind political and legal context of France? (2) How do the program’s recipients signal categories that make them eligible, and how do they interpret their disadvantage in the job market? The findings highlight the limits of diversity policies in the French colorblind context as they fail to empower both their makers and their recipients

Une refondation manquée. Les politiques d’immigration et d’intégration en France

Les politiques d’immigration et d’intégration ont fait l’objet de débats enflammés. Mirna Safi revient sur leurs évolutions depuis deux décennies, marquées par leur caractère sécuritaire, normatif et éloigné des connaissances. Elle suggère des pistes pour sortir de l’impasse où ces politiques se trouvent aujourd’hui

Is America Sick with Inequality?

Douglas Massey’s book, Categorically Unequal, draws up an instructive inventory of inequality in the United States. A classic study of social stratification, it is complemented by a discussion of the production of the categories by means of which individuals and groups are hierarchically organized

The Immigrant Integration Process in France: Inequalities and Segmentation

This article focuses on the integration of immigrants in France as a demographic, economic, social and political process. It uses data from the 1992 INSEE-INED “Mobilité Géographique et Insertion Sociale” survey (MGIS). Taking off from literature emphasizing the multidimensional, segmented character of the process, an empirical typology is developed with which to test the relevance of various models. The classic assimilation hypothesis, which assumes the existence of a uniform convergence process, is shown to be validated only in the case of immigrants from Spain. Other, more complex, segmented models seem to characterize the various communities represented in the survey

Une Amérique malade des inégalités ?

L’ouvrage de Douglas Massey, Categorically Unequal, dresse un état des lieux édifiant des inégalités aux États-Unis. L’étude classique de la stratification sociale est prolongée par une réflexion sur la production des catégories grâce auxquelles les individus et les groupes sont hiérarchisés

La dimension spatiale de l’intégration : évolution de la ségrégation des populations immigrées en France entre 1968 et 1999

Cet article propose un état des lieux empirique de la question de la ségrégation des populations immigrées en France. Il fournit des informations quantifiées, jusqu’ici très rares dans la recherche française, sur le niveau et l’évolution de la ségrégation de ces populations en utilisant les données issues de cinq recensements successifs et en diversifiant les outils de mesure. Un passage en revue théorique explicite les liens entre l’intégration des immigrés et leur distribution dans l’espace. Alors que la théorie de l’assimilation spatiale prédit une sorte de disparition naturelle de la ségrégation, les évolutions régulièrement décroissantes ne sont observées dans ce travail que pour les immigrés venus d’Espagne et d’Italie. Les immigrés venus d’Afrique ou de Turquie se caractérisent non seulement par des niveaux de ségrégation bien plus forts mais également par des évolutions plus contrastées, difficilement interprétables en termes d’assimilation spatiale. La multiplication des outils de mesure ainsi que des zones géographiques analysées met en évidence la complexité de l’analyse quantitative de la ségrégation spatiale et la diversité des facettes de ce phénomène.The article gives an empirical overview of the question of segregation as it affects immigrant groups in France, presenting quantified information, of a sort very seldom found in previous French research, on segregation levels for these population groups and how they evolved, information derived from five consecutive censuses, here analyzed by means of varied measurement tools. Theory for explaining connections between immigrant integration and immigrant distribution in space is reviewed. Whereas the theory of spatial assimilation predicts that segregation will disappear « naturally », this article observes regularly decreasing segregation levels only for Spanish and Italian immigrants. Immigrants from Africa and Turkey not only have much higher segregation levels but also show more variable change over time, change that is difficult to interpret in terms of spatial assimilation. Using a variety of measurement tools and increasing the number of geographic zones analyzed brings to light the many diverse facets of spatial segregation and the complexity of quantitatively analyzing this phenomenon

Measuring the Effect of the Local Ethnic Composition on Natives’ and Immigrants’ Geographic Mobility in France. Evidence from Panel Data (1982-1999)

This article provides empirical results on the patterns of native and immigrant geographic mobility in France. Using longitudinal data, we measure mobility from one French municipality (commune) to another over time and estimate the effect of the initial municipality’s ethnic composition on the probability of moving out. Relying on a unique methodology, we try to correct for biases related to selection based on geographical and individual unobservables. Our findings tend to discredit the hypothesis of the “white flight” central pattern in residential mobility dynamics in France. Some evidence nevertheless denotes ethnic avoidance mechanisms in natives’ relocating. We also find a strong negative and highly robust effect of co-ethnics’ presence on immigrant geographic mobility. The final discussion explores some avenues to interpret these findings

L'acquisition de la nationalité française : quels effets sur l'accès à l'emploi des immigrés?

Sur l'ensemble de la période allant de 1968 à 1999, 11% des immigrés présents à deux recensements successifs ont acquis la nationalité française (hors acquisitions par mariage). Ces naturalisations ont baissé légèrement entre 1975 et 1982 pour devenir ensuite de plus en plus nombreuses. Le pays d'origine affecte fortement la probabilité d'acquisition de la nationalité française: les immigrés originaires d'Algérie, du Portugal et de Turquie sont les moins fréquemment naturalisés, par opposition à ceux venus d'Asie du Sud-Est et d'Afrique subsaharienne. De plus, les femmes acquièrent plus souvent que les hommes la nationalité française. La catégorie socioprofessionnelle et le diplôme des individus affectent très sensiblement les chances de naturalisation : ainsi, être inactif ou ouvrier les diminue. L'acquisition de la nationalité française a un impact positif sur l'accès à l'emploi des immigrés. Cette "prime" due a la naturalisation semble profiter particulièrement aux immigrés qui s'insèrent plus difficilement sur le marché du travail, comme les hommes venus d'Afrique subsaharienne et du Maroc ou les femmes venues de Turquie et du Maghreb

Immigrant/Native Labor Market Inequalities: A Portrait of Patterns and Trends in France and the United Kingdom, 1990-2007

This article gives insights into immigrants’ incorporation into the French and British labor markets in the 1990s and the 2000s, using British and French Labor Force Surveys harmonized by the authors. It compares inequalities in earnings and employment between natives and immigrants in the two countries, but also among immigrant groups. These two countries are among the most commonly included in comparative studies of immigration, but we still have surprisingly little comparative evidence on immigrants’ socioeconomic disadvantage. The results suggest that labor market inequality is sharper in the UK, especially with respect to earnings. More precisely, the most underprivileged immigrant groups in the UK (Pakistanis, Bangladeshis) are disadvantaged to a greater extent than their counterparts in France (Turkish and African immigrants). At the same time, diversity within the immigrant population is much more marked in the UK; some groups have very little labor market disadvantage or even do better than natives, which is almost never the case in France. The French labor market is characterized by a significantly higher level of gender inequality, particularly in earnings, and this compounds the labor market disadvantage of immigrant women

From trans-migrants to trans-borders: insights from the comparison of cross-border activities across three categories of migrants in France

In this article, we measure cross - border activities of three different categories of migrants in France: international migrants, French overseas department migrants and other “national migrants” (return colonial migrants or return expats). We describe for these three migrant categories a wide range of cross - border ties grouped together through factor analysis into three dimensions: sociopolitical, economic and re - migration. Our findings show that all migrants maintain trans - border activities, with particula r intensity among French overseas migrants. The sociopolitical, economic and re - migration dimensions of cross - border activities are also shown to be affected by similar determinants across the three categories of migrants. Building on the unique opportunit y offered by the data in comparing national and international migrants, our final analysis points towards some common determinants related to the type of the border between the origin and destination places involved in the migration process