Labor Market Integration of Immigrants’ Children in France: Taking into Account the Effects of Race and Gender

Elsa Steichen, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

Previous cross-sectional studies have shown that children of non-European immigrants are less likely to be employed than both children of French natives and children of European immigrants. This paper focuses on the school-to-work transition. It provides a comparative analysis of the children of migrants’ labor market entry patterns according to race and gender and questions the “double discrimination” hypothesis which states that second generation women should be the most disadvantaged as they face both racial and gender discrimination. We use a French survey which follows young adults over three years after the end of schooling, allowing for a longitudinal analysis of the school-to-work transition. Preliminary results confirm that while there are few differences between South European second generation and children of natives, North African second generation faces more difficulties during this transition. On the other hand, daughters of North African immigrants are not always more disadvantaged than their male counterparts.