Diverging Pathways : How Pre-Migration Selectivity and Initial Legal Status Shape Immigrant Outcomes in France

Drawing on a unique, large sample survey from France, Trajectories and Origins (TeO), this article aims to disentangle the effects of migrants' initial legal status from their pre-migration characteristics on five outcomes : family income, unemployment, neighborhood income disadvantage, segregation and self-rated health. Findings show that outcomes vary by legal status, but that most of these disparities disappear once pre-migration variables are accounted for. Still, we find net effects of legal status for some categories. Asylum seekers tend to face greater disadvantage in terms of family income and segregation, while students report higher family income and lower neighborhood income disadvantage. Migrants with worker status or a French spouse permit also tend to experience less neighborhood income disadvantage and segregation. Yet interactions between legal status and country of origin show that these effects are not constant across groups. Sub-Saharan Africans and migrants from other non-European countries are the most strongly impacted by disadvantaged status