Yaël Brinbaum

Choices and Enrollments in French Secondary and Higher Education: Repercussions for Second-Generation Immigrants.

In France, the proportion of second-generation immigrants enrolling in tertiary education has increased as education has undergone a process of “democratization.” This article analyzes their postsecondary choices, access to tertiary programs, dropout, and transition to the labor market, compared to those of students of French origin. Youths of Portuguese origin are more likely to enter vocational higher programs concordant with their preferences and have better chances of completing a tertiary degree and finding a job. Despite their preference for selective vocational higher programs, some students of North African origin are diverted toward academic university courses, leading to higher dropout rates. This unequal access to higher education affects both degree completion and entry into the French labor market.

Gender Inequalities in the Education of the Second Generation in Western Countries

Drawing on comparative analyses from nine Western countries, we ask whether local-born children from a wide range of immigrant groups show patterns of female advantage in education that are similar to those prevalent in their host Western societies. We consider five outcomes throughout the educational career: test scores or grades at age 15, continuation after compulsory schooling, choice of academic track in upper-secondary education, completion of upper secondary, and completion of tertiary education. Despite great variation in gender gaps in education in immigrants’ origin countries (with advantages for males in many cases), we find that the female advantage in education observed among the majority population is usually present among second-generation immigrants. We interpret these findings in light of ideas about gender role socialization and immigrant selectivity.

Les scolarités des enfants d'immigrés de la sixième au baccalauréat : différenciation et polarisation des parcours

Les inegalites d’education selon les origines migratoires et sociales sont analysees en examinant les performances a l’entree et a la fin des annees de college, les orientations au lycee, puis les diplomes obtenus, a partir du panel des eleves entres en 6e en 1995 en France. Les inegalites des enfants d’immigres se forment des l’ecole primaire, mais ne se creusent pas ulterieurement. Considerant les donnees de facon tantot absolue, tantot relative, les difficultes scolaires de ces enfants se trouvent confirmees, et plus pour les garcons que les filles. En revanche est soulignee la relative proximite entre ces jeunes et leurs condisciples francais d’origine de meme milieu socioprofessionnel. Les sorties sans diplome des enfants d’immigres resultent des echecs aux examens chez les jeunes d’origine maghrebine, a la difference des jeunes d’origine portugaise qui accedent au marche du travail. Si plus de la moitie des eleves de la cohorte obtiennent un baccalaureat, il s’agit plutot d’un baccalaureat technologique ou professionnel. Les ecarts de reussite selon le genre sont plus eleves parmi les jeunes issus de l’immigration. On observe ainsi une differenciation des parcours selon l’origine et une polarisation sexuee.

The Transition from School to Work for Children of Immigrants with Lower-Level Educational Credentials in the United States and France

This paper compares the transition from school to work among Mexican-origin youth in the United States and North African-origin youth in France relative to the native-majority youth with similar low-level credentials. The goal is to understand the extent to which these groups experience ethnic penalties in the labor market not explained by social class, low-level credentials, or other characteristics. The patterns of employment for second-generation minorities play out differently in the two contexts. In France, lack of access to jobs is a source of disadvantage for North African children of immigrants, while in the united States, second-generation Mexicans do not suffer from a lack of employment. Indeed, the Mexican second-generation shows a uniquely high level of employment. We argue that high levels of youth unemployment in the society, as is the case in France, means greater ethnic penalties for second-generation minorities.

The Children of Immigrants in France

In 2005, 4.9 million immigrants were residing in metropolitan France. This was 8.1 per cent of the population. Children of immigrants represent close to one fifth of all children. Children with at least one parent from Algeria, Morocco, or Tunisia make up almost 40 per cent of these children, and children of sub-Saharan African origin make up one eighth. Of the 3.5 million foreigners living in France in 2004, 450,000 were children 0–17 whose parents were foreign born.

Educational Trajectories and Transition to Employment of the Second Generation

This chapter examines the key stages in the diverse educational trajectories of immigrants’ descendants and DOM native-borns in the French educational system, up to their entry into working life. Several indicators of educational trajectory or status are analysed, distinguishing systematically between males and females, and taking account of the national origins of immigrants’ descendants: repeated years at primary school, tracks followed at upper secondary level, early school leaving, likelihood of obtaining a high-school diploma, failure in higher education. The results reveal inequalities in academic trajectories and achievement by ethnic background and gender, and show that these inequalities do not always reflect differences in social capital and family environment. In the male population especially, we cannot rule out the hypothesis that certain categories of immigrants’ descendants are exposed to discrimination in schools. The chapter ends with an analysis of transition from education to employment (time taken to find a job, experience of unemployment, job market integration, etc.) that reveals a segmentation of the entry into working life by country of origin. The sons, but also the daughters of immigrants from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Turkey have greater difficulties finding a first job.

Discrimination in France: Between Perception and Experience

One of the key objectives of the TeO survey was to collect information on all types of discrimination (sex, ethnicity and skin colour, age, religion, sexual orientation, etc). For this purpose, questions about perceptions and experience of discrimination were asked in different sections of the questionnaire. This chapter approaches discrimination by using different indicators referring to representations of discrimination, self-reported experience of discrimination and situations involving discrimination in various areas of social life. The subjective and more objective reported occurrences of discrimination are analysed by gender, generation and ethnicity. We obtain important findings which demonstrate that 1) ethnic and racial discrimination is the most prevalent form of discrimination reported in the survey; 2) visible minorities are the most frequent targets of discrimination, mainly based on their ethnicity and skin colour; 3) in their self-reported experience of discrimination, ethnic minorities tend to underestimate rather than exaggerate its frequency. Experience of discrimination and of othering are also highly correlated and there is a significant impact of religion, for Muslims, on the risk of reporting discrimination.

Examining educational inequalities in two national systems: a comparison of the North African second generation in France and the Mexican second generation in the United States

ABSTRACT This paper aims to compare the educational outcomes of children of immigrants in France and in the United States to highlight the ethnic educational inequalities in both countries. The comparison focuses on children from two groups: North Africans in France and Mexicans in the United States. By using two longitudinal datasets, the French Educational Panel Survey and Add Health, we examine aspirations, expectations, and secondary attainment in the two contexts. We explore in particular the role of parental education on attainment. Immigrant families have high educational aspirations in both contexts. North-African families express higher aspirations than native French with similar background, while there are no significant differences between second-generation Mexicans and the majority group net of parental education. Second-generation children are disadvantaged in school in both countries; they are more likely to drop out and less likely to graduate from high school, but most of the disadvantage is related to their social background. Net of social background, the Mexican second generation does not differ from the majority group while the North African second generation is more likely to get the French high school diploma than their peers of French origins, in line with their high aspirations. However, North Africans are more likely to receive the technological baccalauréat than the general baccalauréat.

The long-term outcomes of early educational differentiation in France

The French school system has long been divided clearly into two distinct tracks (Baudelot and Establet 1971). Since the end of the nineteenth century, primary-level school was designed to provide a common republican culture to all the pupils of the French nation, thereby leading to a long tradition of centralized education. In contrast, secondary education was designed to teach children from the elites rather than favouring social mobility for all children (Prost 1992). As in many European countries, education in France experienced a long process of democratization during the second half of the twentieth century resulting in a progressive unification of secondary education and in a wider participation on all levels (Duru-Bellat and Kieffer 2000). For example, whereas the share of those passing the upper secondary school diploma [baccalaureat ] in a cohort was 5 per cent in 1950, it reached 20 per cent in 1970 and 74 per cent in 2013. In 1980, 40 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds dropped out after completing lower secondary education (college ) compared to 11.4 per cent in 2012 (DEPP 2014).