The youngest are mostly from Africa, the oldest from Europe. Among the people living in ordinary housing in metropolitan France, 5.8 million are immigrants, that is, 9% of the population. According to the second edition of the Trajectories and Ancestry Survey, jointly carried out in 2019-2020 by INSEE and INED, measuring three generations of ancestry, the diversity of unions and the level of educational progress across generations. Even if social inequalities persist.
Their profile belatedly reflects the successive flows of immigration. nearly half of this immigrant population was born in Africa, and a third in Europe. The share of Europeans is on the decline, while the share of people from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is increasing. About 7.5 million individuals are descendants of second-generation immigrants (12% of the population), that is, born in France to at least one of their immigrant parents. Among people under 60, 4.7 million are descendants of third-generation immigrants (10% of those under 60), that is, born in France to non-immigrant parents and at least one of their immigrant grandparents.
Better degrees than their parents
The link to immigration, which fades over generations as the diversity of origins also accounts for the increasing diversity of unions, the study found; “If 27% of immigrants are a couple with a spouse with no direct immigrant ancestry, that’s 66% of second-generation descendants, experts say. In the third generation, nine out of ten grandchildren of immigrants under age 60 have only one or two immigrant grandparents.”
Is educational attainment progressing as much in immigrant families as in others? For the first time, the Trajectories and Origins Survey has measured progress in educational attainment over three generations. “72% of descendants of two immigrant parents get a higher degree than their parents, says the study. This is higher than for children of mixed couples with only one immigrant parent (55%) or those of native descent (57%). However, these children of two immigrant parents, starting with low educational capital, are less likely to graduate from higher education than the descendants of natives.”
But what professions do these diplomas lead to? Graduates of higher education born to one or both parents of non-European origin are much less likely to enter middle or higher professions; . Part of the explanation for these differences, according to the INSEE and INED research, is by origin. “caused by regularly measured discrimination in employment.”
Discrimination
This is also the topic of the third part of the study. In ten years, the feeling of discrimination and sexist motivation of women increases, the report states. To the question “In the last five years, do you think you have been subjected to unequal treatment or discrimination?” 19% of the population aged 18 to 49 answered “often” or “sometimes”. In 2008-2009, this proportion was only 14 percent. A more noticeable increase for women than for men. In 2019-2020, 21% of them report being discriminated against, compared to 14% ten years ago. Gender has become the main cause of discrimination, bypassing people related to origin, nationality or skin color.
Source: Le Figaro
