The difficulties faced by immigrants from the Maghreb region who are looking for work in the French labor market have recently been revealed by a study by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). Despite numerous pledges and promises to tackle the problem, France and other European countries remain hot spots for anti-immigrant sentiment. This is true and it happens.
The article also revealed that due to unfavorable stereotypes about their ancestry and origins, job applicants of North African origin face significant exclusion in France. According to INSEE data, published in March, covering the period between 2019 and 2020, the probability that a job applicant will be vetted after a job interview depends on the respondent’s gender and country of origin. According to the study, employers treat resumes of comparable quality differently from those that are not, even if the only differences are the candidates’ gender and country of origin, which would indicate their first and last name.
The study found that even when North African applicants complete their education, receive their diplomas and only work in France, they are contacted 32% less frequently by recruiters than applicants without “migrant ancestry”. Because women of North African descent are 9% more likely than men to hear from recruiters again, the thesis found that a job seeker’s gender also affects their chances. Therefore, it can be said that, among the forms of discrimination suffered by the Maghrebi collective in France, the male is the one who experiences the greatest difficulties in finding a job.
However, compared to women without migrant ancestry, women of North African descent are 29% less likely than those without migrant ancestry to receive a call from HR after an initial interview. Men of North African descent are 34% less likely than their French or European counterparts to be contacted for a second interview.
Racism in the workplace is a problem that results from the barriers that the immigrant community faces in seeking higher education. A recent study found that French universities are still battling prejudice against names with North African and Arabic roots. The study, which analyzed the admission policies of 84 universities for more than 2,000 study programs, was published by Gustave Eiffel University and led by Sylvain Chareyron, Berlanda Desuza Fils-Aime and Yannick L’Horty.
According to the study, the difference of 7.7 points is smaller than the difference of 8.6 a year earlier, but still represents a relative difference of 11-12% in the probability of receiving a response to a direct request. The researchers also note that discrimination in North Africa appears to affect male and female students equally. Previously, similar findings have been made in several European and Western countries, showing that applicants for jobs and higher education consistently experience higher rejection rates if their names “sound non-Western”, even if their academic qualifications are of some value. equal.
Similar concerns about the prejudices and related problems that immigrants in France have encountered over the years, both at work and in many other facets of life, have been raised in numerous reports over the years. . Minorities were subject to “apparent discrimination” in the hiring process, according to a 2020 French government study. Compared to applicants whose first and last names were of European origin, the study found that those with names that “sounded Arabic” they had less than a 25% chance of being seriously considered for a job.
Several years of investigation revealed that seven national companies, including Air France, Accor, Altran, Rexel, Arkema and Sopra Steria, engaged in discriminatory hiring practices by giving preference to candidates whose names suggested they were of French or European descent. Candidates with European-sounding names had a 12.5% success rate, while candidates with North African-sounding names had a 9.3% success rate, according to the study. Similar reports have emphasized the need for France and other European nations to step up their efforts to combat racism and racial discrimination on several occasions.
The UN has warned that racism and discrimination are “at the center of political and social concerns”, recognizing the seriousness of the problem of prejudice against immigrants and descendants of immigrants. According to a recent statement posted on the UN website, “Council of Europe member states have been taking measures and making consistent efforts to combat these trends for many years in response to persistent manifestations of racism and xenophobia,” written by Isil Gachet, Executive Secretary of the ECRI (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance).