“Trajectories and Origins”, the return. The National Institute of Statistics (Insee) and the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) unveiled, on Tuesday July 5, the first results of a vast survey on the diversity of the population in metropolitan France. Conducted face-to-face with 27,200 people in 2019 and 2020, the study entitled “Trajectories and Origins 2” (TeO2) reveals how origins, gender or religion can affect everyone’s integration into the society.
“Bad news: there is more declared discrimination than ten years ago”, summarizes for franceinfo one of the authors of the survey, the demographer Patrick Simon. Among people aged 18 to 49 who agreed to take part in this work, 19% said they had suffered “unequal treatment or discrimination” over the past five years. They were only 14% in the initial edition of the TeO survey, conducted in 2008 and 2009. Behind this increase may lie a resurgence of acts committed, but also a greater perception of their discriminatory scope.
A sharper increase in women
The most notable increase is observed among women, who are 21% to report discrimination, against 14% ten years earlier. “This is largely explained by the fact that they more often report being discriminated against because of their gender”, highlights for franceinfo Sylvie Le Minez, head of demographic studies at Insee. “This probably reflects greater awareness, because situations that could be discriminatory in the past were not necessarily experienced as such.”
Sexism is now the first source of discrimination declared by women (46%, against 28% in 2008-2009). “This theme has grown considerably in ten years, insists Patrick Simon. When we talk about the problems of maternity leave or the wage gap between women and men, they are more likely to identify their experience as discrimination, which they did not do before. Among men, 16% of respondents (compared to 13% previously) report discrimination, mainly because of their origin, nationality or skin color (58%).
People from sub-Saharan Africa remain the most affected
The proportion of immigrants and their direct descendants declaring that they have suffered discrimination (all causes combined) is almost twice as high as among people without immigrant ancestry. This gap is even higher among overseas natives and their children born in mainland France, more than 30% of whom report such facts.
In detail by region of origin, it is among populations from sub-Saharan Africa that the rates are highest, particularly among descendants of immigrants (41%). Next come the children of North African immigrants (37%) and the descendants of immigrants from Turkey and the Middle East (33%).
Why are these levels often higher for the children of immigrants than for their parents? “Having been socialized in France, they are more sensitive to differences in treatmentsays Patrick Simon. Moreover, thanks to higher education, they gain access to other levels of society. There, their origin will harm them more than in the unskilled professions of their parents. They are exposed to more discrimination because of competition in their sector of employment.
Origin cited as first reason, gender and religion on the rise
Among people who say they have been victims of unequal treatment in 2019-2020, 43% say they have been because of their origin, nationality or skin color, ahead of gender (29%), age (13%) and religion (8%). Unsurprisingly, this reason linked to origins is cited by 82% of immigrants believing that they have suffered discrimination and by 70% of descendants of immigrants faced with such situations. The same is true for overseas natives (83%) and their descendants (70%).
In ten years, however, significant changes have taken place. Even if it remains dominant, the reason of origin, nationality or skin color is cited less often than in 2008-2009 (down 11 points among people who say they have been confronted with discrimination). Conversely, “the reason for religion has become more present, in particular for people who identify as Muslim, with a rise from 5% to 11%”underlines Patrick Simon, who specifies: “Muslim people who until now thought they were discriminated against because of their origin now say they have been discriminated against because of their religion.”
The unemployed and vulnerable people are more exposed
All other things being equal, the fact of being looking for a job exposes you to a risk of reporting discrimination that is up to twice as high as that of workers, according to the authors of the study in question. Unequal treatment “are less frequent once in employment”, they recall, even if they also exist. The state of health is also an increased risk factor: “People whose state of health is degraded or severely limited declare almost twice as often to have experienced discrimination than people in good health.”
However, the greatest risk difference remains linked to geographical origin, especially among men. With an identical socio-economic profile, the risk of declaring discrimination is more than six times higher for immigrant men from sub-Saharan Africa compared to men without immigrant ancestry. These gaps have tended to narrow in ten years, despite a notable increase among the descendants of Asian immigrants.
Complaints are very rare
Among the people who declared having suffered discrimination in 2019-2020, only 2% filed a complaint and 7% seized the Defender of Rights, an association or a union. Those who say they have been discriminated against because of their state of health or their disability are the most active on these fronts, with 7% filing of complaints and 12% of miscellaneous referrals, due to a greater “confidence in the usefulness and outcome of a complaint of discrimination”.
In most cases, the people concerned are indignant when the situation arises (38% of cases) or talk about it to relatives (46%), with a form of fatalism. “The strongest awareness of discrimination is not does not translate into a greater ability to assert one’s rights, observe the authors of the survey. Nearly half (48%) of people who say they have been discriminated against have done nothing because they think that starting a process would be useless.