Immigrants access to the French labour market

Alina Toader, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

The labour market participation of immigrants in the receiving countries has been of great research interest over the last decades. In France, the conducted studies revealed differences between immigrants and natives on the French labour market regarding the employment/unemployment status, the occupational class, along with variations in the promotion chances. Furthermore, the results reckoned national origin as being the main indicator for predicting variation within the immigrant communities. Consisting with the above findings, a longitudinal analyse is proposed to study of a specific moment in the individual employment histories, namely the labour market access in France. To begin with, the research was designed to purposely compare the time the individuals, immigrants and natives, spend in getting their first job in France. Subsequently, to uncover the heterogeneity among immigrants, several indicators are to be examined, which regards their life course positions at the time of migration, the conditions of migration, along with the occupational transitions between the departure country and France. First of all, the hypothesis addresses the differences in labour market participation as appear between immigrants and natives. Secondly, the hypothesis argues against the results according to which the national origin is the most differential factor among immigrants. The study considers factors like the position in the life course along with occupational transitions when migrating and the individual situations by the time of “employability” in France as better characterize immigrants access to the French labour market. To test the above mentioned hypothesis, the study resorts on data produced in the “Histoire de vie” survey (INSEE, 2003), one of the rare surveys in France that allowed recounting employment histories, especially for the immigrant population. Two statistical tools are going to be used to measure the time until the first job in France: the actuarial method and the accelerated failure time model.