Objections of a demographer

In his work, Hugues Lagrange seeks to better understand the sources of tensions in sensitive cities in France. The author refers to previous work and the data he himself collected. He underlines the existence of a specific culture which he designates as a “ subculture »Caitant to immigrants ; This would result from the confrontation of at least two cultural spaces, the countries of origin of immigrants and French society as a whole. The author is interested in family configurations and asks the question: “ What are the conditions for a more successful integration of migrant families from Africa ? »He assumes 1/ that cultural origin and migratory journeys are important determinants of tensions and conflicts in certain cities of the Parisian suburbs ; 2/ that sex relationships, as well as the authority of men in the family and in the community, express themselves differently among the groups of immigrants from the Maghreb, Africa in south of the Sahara and Turkey. After a summary of the family differences that the author underlines between the groups, I will recall certain dimensions of contemporary family changes, before returning to methodological problems posed by the book.

In order to account for cultural diversity and better guide public action, the author compares the family configurations of the populations from the Maghreb and those from Africa south of the Sahara. Among immigrants of North African origin, the author notes a weakening of traditions and patriarchy and increasing schooling. On the other hand, among immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the integration process seems different for several reasons. First of all, this group of migrants is much more heterogeneous in terms of traditions and behaviors in each country and ethnic group. Then, the composition of migratory flows according to the countries of origin has changed during history: more recently, these flows would constitute natives of countries with patrilineal family tradition, while the oldest would come from matrilineal parentage systems . Finally, more recent immigrants would have less literacy rates, are of Muslim confession, and their families would be more numerous.

The author characterizes African family morphologies (mainly from the Sahel) by a system of patrilineal parentage, where male elders exercise the dominant authority and create an unequal system in terms of sexes with negative consequences on the role of women and on socialization of children. The author recognizes on a few times the heterogeneity of the immigrant population from sub-Saharan Africa, but he does not treat it in his analysis. For example, he mentions the existence of ethnic groups of West Africa practicing matriarchy but does not justify why relations of authority would be more diffuse. Or more strikingly, he describes polygamy as one of the indicators of the domination of males in Mali, Mauritania and Senegal and tries to explain the phenomenon according to its argument, but it does not cite the demographic, economic and social which explains the maintenance of this type of unequal union where a man has several wives ; It seems to restrict it to an immutable traditional practice. For example, the percentages of married women 15-49 years old in a polygamous union differ between Mali (44 % in 1995 and 40 % in 2006, according to demographic and health surveys), Senegal (46 % in 1997 and 40 % in 2005) and Mauritania, where the percentage is much lower (12 % in 2001) ; Contrasts exist between urban and rural environments and ethnic groups. In Mali and Senegal, the maintenance of this practice is explained by almost universal marriage, widowhood of women and their remarriage to a polygamous. In town, some co-wives may not co-reside and allow themselves to live in separate housing by contributing to the costs. In rural areas, populations that have become sedentary, like the Moors in northern Mali have adopted polygamy quite recently (Marriage in MaliLardoux 2009). Other matrimonial changes are observed in Senegal for example (Marriage and divorce in DakarDial 2008) where unions before marriage are increasingly practiced, age at the marriage of women is later in the capital, the instability of unions grows and the status of women progresses, in connection with the concept of ‘empowerment (En-capacity) that the author describes and for which he could have referred to the work of the demographer Thérèse Locoh (2007). Thus, in patriarchal societies, many changes are underway and the characteristics of social changes, especially in terms of intergenerational and gender relations, should lower the explanatory power of this variable in the sources of tensions of the Parisian suburbs that He describes.

It is regrettable that greater attention was not paid by the author to precision and all sources because the few flaws that it is possible to identify on this side arouse doubt on the rigor of his work. For example, the author presents the fertility rates of several African countries in order to highlight the high and constant levels in Mali and Senegal. However, the quotes from the sources are incomplete: it refers to the global fertility surveys (EMF) conducted until 1980, but forgets the demographic and health surveys which are today the main sources of information on fertility. Why does he not present, to support his argument, a table describing the fertility rates of immigrants from these countries of origin as well as the size of households ? In addition, the author does not use a model for an objective analysis which respects the condition “ all things being equal to “, When he declares to be interested in family forms according to the size of households, for the forms of marriage (“ more or less marked by endogamy and family imprint »), The frequency of mixed unions, the levels of literacy and schooling, the drop in preferential marriages, the strengthening of life as a couple outside marriage, and the drop in fertility rate over the generations since arrival in France.

The concept of “ subculture “CONTINUED TO ALL IMMIGMERS, whom the author describes in the text and in the appendix, is interesting and could be used for understanding social processes at work, such as the reasons and constraints of migration before and since the ‘Arrival, and the spatial segregation processes in which immigrants evolve. However, the author does not analyze the dynamics of training of immigrant identities. On the contrary, he chooses a reductive definition of cultural origin, describes it as unique and frozen, even traditional, in time and space while international or national migrants, between campaigns and cities, set up many strategies of ‘adaptation. These translate into combinations of influence linked to origins but also to social, economic, political and demographic constraints linked to the characteristics of the host society. The author quotes the TEO (trajectories and origins) survey, representative at the national level and carried out in 2008-09 by theIned and theINSEEbut he does not study the integration processes by a biographical analysis of school, professional, residential, matrimonial or health trajectories of young boys and girls, and their fathers and immigrant mothers. For example, greater access by immigrant women of sub-Saharan origin to the labor market would not decrease the importance of the role of the patriarchal organization in certain immigrants ? Finally, the author struggles to demonstrate his thesis for two main reasons. First of all, the measurement of the number of offenses according to the origin of individuals seems unreliable because people of sub-Saharan origin are those who undergo the most police controls and less good treatment than those of others origins ; Thus biases of reverse causality, endogeneity and non -representativeness of the sample strongly limit its remarks. The second reason is that the author does not use a model taking into account the trajectories cited above and omits to show why individuals of African origin (excluding Maghreb), whatever their characteristics, encounter the most difficulties in The steps leading to better integration (finding a job, housing, access to health services and information) compared to immigrants from other origins.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the author has the merit of wanting to pay particular attention to the family characteristics of immigrants and to the formation of a subculture by interaction of the norms and values ​​of the country of origin and the host country. It is a shame that the title of the work does not evoke the new culture better better than immigrants develop to the rhythm and stages of their process of adaptation to the host society. A great limit of the study is the absence of a distinction between immigrants born abroad and those born in France. However, past research (like those of Maryse Potvin, Michèle Vatz-Lararoussi and Monica Boyd in Canada) have shown how important it is to observe these two groups separately from the rest of the population because their socio-economic characteristics and their journeys of life are very different.