Title: The school-to-work transitions of second-generation youth in France

Authors: Sorana Toma

Addresses: ENSAE – Laboratoire de Sociologie Quantitative, 60 rue Etienne Dolet, 92240 Malakoff, France

Abstract: Research on the socio-economic outcomes of children of immigrants (second-generation) in the European context is relatively recent, especially in France. Most scholarship focuses on the educational difficulties experienced by second-generation youth, while their labour market outcomes have been less investigated and tend to rely only on cross-sectional evidence. Using a cohort study of school-leavers that records a retrospective calendar of the respondents' monthly labour force situation, this paper investigates the dynamic and longitudinal aspects of early labour market transitions using event-history models. Findings show that youth with North African and, to a lesser extent, Turkish and Sub-Saharan background, experience longer, more 'chaotic' transitions to work, with constant balancing in and out of employment and a highly problematic access to permanent, full-time jobs. Moreover, the relative explaining power of several mechanisms in the observed ethnic disparities is tested, such as differences in educational attainment, social background and context of unemployment.

Keywords: school-to-work transition; second generation young people; event-history analysis; early labour market outcomes; gender; second generation youth; France; immigrants; school leavers; North African background; Turkish background; Sub-Saharan Africa; SSA background; transitions to work; permanent jobs; ethnic disparities; educational attainment; social background; unemployment context; second generation immigrants.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2015.070786

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2015 Vol.1 No.4, pp.372 - 397

Accepted: 30 Jan 2015
Published online: 24 Jul 2015 *

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