The Ambivalent Nature of Ethnic Segregation in France’s Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods

To achieve a better understanding of life conditions in the suburbs (banlieues) that erupted in the 2005 riots, segregation in France is here evaluated for the first time. The apparent reduction in class segregation between two most recent full censuses and the contrary rise in ethnic segregation are shown. Using longitudinal data and observing the residential mobility of residents in the ‘sensitive neighbourhoods’, it is shown that: most who move out are upwardly mobile; Africans find it harder to move out and are three times more likely to move into the least-advantaged neighbourhoods; the more the neighbourhood is disadvantaged, the more its residents move into another equally disadvantaged neighbourhood.