Second Generations on the Job Market in France: A Persistent Ethnic Penalty
How consistent over time is the ethnic penalty regarding access to the labor market in France? We address this issue considering two cohorts of young people who left school in the last decade of the twentieth century. Our results show that, with educational qualifications kept constant, the penalt...
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| Glavni autori: | , |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Français |
| Izdano: |
2009
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| Online pristup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sažetak: | How consistent over time is the ethnic penalty regarding access to the labor market in
France? We address this issue considering two cohorts of young people who left school in
the last decade of the twentieth century. Our results show that, with educational qualifications kept constant, the penalty remains basically the same over the years for young people
of North African origin–who were already experiencing difficulties in the 1980s– in spite of
relatively favorable labor market conditions and regardless of the ongoing educational
expansion. Two other groups were also subjected to a significant penalty: young people of
sub-Saharan African origin and, to a lesser degree, young people of Southeast Asian origin.
Over this period, while the improvement of economic conditions benefited most degreeholders, high numbers of young people of North African immigrant origin remained stuck in
lower educational positions. The group was overtaken by young people of Portuguese origin,
who seem to have gained access to higher educational levels through the extension of vocational education to the lower tertiary level. Such facts would seem to support the idea of
“statistical discrimination”, a mechanism based on a given group’s average characteristics.
However, the boundary line between this and more overtly racist discrimination remains
indistinct. In any case, the strong feeling of being discriminated against expressed by young
people of North African and black African origins, as well as their pessimistic view of the
future, reveals a sharp cleavage within French society–a statement that does not hold, however, for young people of Turkish origin. These pessimistic perceptions may also work to
amplify a negative dynamic over the longer term, as shown by longitudinal data available on
the second cohort. Our results lead to revisiting the “segmented assimilation” theory as elaborated in the American context, referring to a form of racism specific to American society;
i.e., racism against the black population of slave descent. |
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