Riots, abaya… The news focuses on the failures of integration. But in the exciting The Integrated, sociologist Arnaud Lacheret, associate professor at Skema Business School and specialist in Arab-Muslim culture, has chosen to focus on success stories. He conducted dozens of interviews with French graduates of North African origin, who have succeeded professionally and experienced an upward trajectory compared to their parents. Survey data “Trajectories and origins” from INED confirm the overall optimistic tone of the book. In 2010, 20% of the children of parents of Algerian origin held a higher education diploma. For those from Morocco or Tunisia, rises to 31%, just three points less than the French majority population (INED defines this population as non-immigrant metropolitan French people and not children of immigrants or overseas nationals). spectacular with a virtual catch-up in a single generation for the descendants of Moroccan and Tunisian immigrants”, underlines Arnaud Lacheret.
Above all, in terms of socio-professional categories, the evolution of the children of Moroccan and Tunisian parents is comparable to that of the children of Italians or Spaniards. That of the descendants of Algerian immigrants, less educated at the start, is similar to that of the descendants of Portuguese. “Over a generation, the progression is the same between European and extra-European populations”.
The Integrated smashes many preconceived ideas and teems with food for thought for politicians. The essay shows, for example, that these children of immigrants often make rational choices of orientation, favoring business studies which allow them to earn money quickly and obtain a position of responsibility. “It’s very cruel for the positive discrimination policies practiced in France. We promote access to Science Po, but the goal of these young people is not to be a civil servant. They want to succeed in the private sector”, confides Arnaud Lacheret. The people interviewed also confirm a predilection for scientific or technical studies, which are much more valued in North African culture (for example, Moroccan students are very numerous at Polytechnique) and which, moreover, have the advantage of avoiding partly to discrimination and favouritism.
Differences between men and women
The testimonies of these class defectors highlight the importance of a confrontation with other social milieus, even through sport. A director of human resources for a large group remembers being opposed to the opening of a media library in her district of Strasbourg, because one of the only opportunities she had to get out of it was to take the bus to go to the city center media library. According to Arnaud Lacheret, city policies, based on the financing of equipment within disadvantaged neighborhoods themselves, can thus prove to be perfectly counter-productive: “It is better to invest in transport. Nothing is done to that you leave your neighborhood. Greater Paris took decades. We even organized a neighborhood World Cup. But if you don’t confront the middle classes or the bourgeoisie, it’s difficult to acquire the codes” .
The book also highlights the differences between women and men. The former are subject to much more constraints within families with often traditional values, not to mention social control in working-class neighborhoods. “Often, newcomers reproduce a North African rural pattern. The boys come first, while the girls have to negotiate the smallest space of freedom. They fight constantly. But when they encounter difficulties at school or whether they face rejection for their internships or their first job, these women are more used to obstacles and frustrations, unlike men who have been told yes to everything,” observes Arnaud Lacheret. Men say they are more marked by discrimination than women. “In addition, boys from North African immigration are victims of more prejudice. Arab men are perceived by French society as conquerors, where women are seen more as weak victims who must be helped to emancipate .” The sociologist pleads for public policies to take these differences in career paths according to gender much more into account.
Re-Islamization
Finally, the book defends the thesis that culture is a much more important factor than religion. “It is wrong to link all the problems of integration to Islam. The newcomers from the Maghreb are rather conservative. But it is a patriarchal and rural culture that we find around the Mediterranean”, considers Arnaud Lacheret. For him, the danger comes much more from the re-Islamization movements, which particularly target the children of immigrants in a situation of failure.
“For twenty years now, currents have been targeting the second generation, and preferably those who are unable to evolve above the social condition of their parents. These identity movements explain to them that the country of origin of their parents is better than France which hates them, that we must find a purified Islam. Tariq Ramadan had theorized this from his first books in the early 2000s, writing that it was necessary to give children of immigration a pure Islam , uprooted from that practiced by their parents.” The successes of integration, real and numerous, should not make us forget that disintegration is always possible…
“The Integrated, successes of the second generation of North African immigration”, by Arnaud Lacheret. The Waterfront, 200 p., €18.