S5-16

Second Generation North African Youths and the French Labour Market: The Case of Higher Education Students
by Murdoch, Jake (University of Bourgogne, France)

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyse whether second generation North African (Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria) youths experience the same employment prospects as native French youths. This question is important as today the former youths generally possess French citizenship, and thus have the same employment rights as native French (e.g. access to civil service employment). Using data from the French 2001 employment survey by the CEREQ (g¨Śn¨Śration 98), we focus on the employment of higher education students. Indeed, today a third of North African youths enter higher education every year. We can wonder if this educational democratization for these youths has lead also to a reduction in the inequalities on the labour market. Our analysis shows that despite the increasing participation rates in higher education mentioned above, half of the North African youths drop out of higher education without obtaining a diploma (compared with only a quarter for native French). Moreover, even when North African youths reach the same level of studies as the other youths, they experience more difficulties in finding employment on leaving higher education (they spend longer seeking employment and experience more periods of unemployment, etc.). In addition, once they find employment, the latter is more frequently precarious in nature. Finally, the employment prospects of second generation North African young women appear to be worse than that of young men, even when differences in level and type of studies are taken into account.