According to the annual OECD study published this Thursday, residential segregation has benefits for immigrants who have just arrived. But, in the long term, it constitutes a disability for them and their children.
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At six months of the presidential election, the problem of the integration of immigrants has emerged among several candidates. At the beginning of the election campaign, Valérie Pécresse, candidate for the party investiture the Republicans (LR) for the presidential election, has, for example, estimated that “we have an uncontrolled immigration and missed integration”, while Michel Barnier, Also candidate LR, would like to institute an “integration pact” which would include a linguistic, educational and civic “with points” and “linked to the exercise of a job”. Emmanuel Macron himself talked about “integration crisis companies, with also people who come from more difficult to integrate”, during a dinner organized by the Protestant community, Tuesday, October 26th.
In its annual study to appear on Thursday, October 28, “Perspectives of International Migration 2021”, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was interested in the residential segregation of immigrants. “Many consider, especially in the European countries of the OECD, that a high concentration of immigrants constitutes an obstacle to integration”, justify the authors. The phenomenon of concentration in the poorest districts and suburbs of large cities is “universal”, they point out. If the Ile-de-France focuses about 35% of people born abroad, the community of Madrid welcomes 19% of the immigrants of Spain, while the County of Stockholm concentrates 30% of all immigrants and London, 36%.
“A disability”
Inside these spaces, other concentration scales appear. In Paris, notes the OECD, “in the northern and northeastern part of the urban area, especially in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, as well as along the Seine southeast of Paris, ( …) The percentage of extractive immigrants within the population is at least twice above the average of the entire urban area “. In addition, “housing is generally in the worse state, and the local environment is much more likely by high levels of violence, pollution and noise pollution.”
The effects of such segregation are “complex”, observes the OECD. “This has advantages for immigrants who have just arrived, in terms of social network and therefore access to a job, housing or even psychological support,” says Gilles Spielvogel, a migration economist and co-author of the Study. But, in the long run, to stay in these areas can lead to negative effects, such as a loss of employment opportunity or disincentive language learning “. In France, the employment rate of immigrants was 59% in 2020, 7.4 points less than native. “Those who can not leave are found in a blocking situation for them and their children.”
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