Unequal Opportunities and Ethnic Origin: The Labor Market Outcomes of Second-Generation Immigrants in France

International audienceThis paper makes two contributions to the empirical analysis of the socioeconomic achievement of ethnic minorities. The first contribution is methodological. I rely on a discussion of the concept of equality of opportunity to analyze how the disadvantage suffered by ethnic minorities should be defined and empirically measured. The second contribution is empirical. I estimate the disadvantage suffered by second-generation immigrants, in the access to education, employment and earnings in France. Contrary to most papers in this area, I identify second-generation immigrants in a consistent way, using information of parental geographic and national origin. I also discuss the extent to which measured earnings differentials reflect ethnic discrimination or ethnic-blind social inequalities. * Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA and Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies, European University Institute. Email: Arnaud.Lefranc@eui.eu. I thank Virginie Guiraudon and seminar participants at the EUI Migration working group, the INED-COMPAS workshop and the University of Evry conference on " Measuring discriminations " for useful suggestions