評論
打印
Ethnic minorities in France
法國少數民族
An edgy inquiry
一項前衛調查
A taboo on studying immigrant families' performance is fraying
打破調查移民家庭表現的禁忌
BY LAW, French authorities cannot collect ethnic statistics. All citizens are considered equal. Differentiating them is felt to imply stigmatisation, or even worse to echo the singling out of Jews that took place under the collaborationist Vichy regime in the 1940s.
根據法律規定，法國官方部門不可以收集少數民族的統計資料。所有公民一律平等，對其進行區分可認為是有意歧視，嚴重者，可喚起20世紀40年代維希賣國政府對猶太人迫害的記憶。
Yet however strong the historical reasons, this approach makes it difficult to tell whether French people of different backgrounds really do fare as well as each other. A new study suggests they do not.
然而，無論歷史的作用多么強大，禁止的方法讓人難以發現法國不同背景的人們是否真的個個表現良好。一項新的研究表明，并非全然良好。
It comes, surprisingly, from an official source: France Strategie, the government's economic-strategy unit, which is run by Jean Pisani-Ferry, an economist. The authors get round the ethnicity taboo by using census data on national origin. Several decades after mass immigration began, enough long-term data exist to see how the generation raised in France by parents from other countries has done.
出人意外的是，該項研究竟出自官方之手：由經濟學家Jean Pisani-Ferry經營的政府經濟戰略研究單位France Strategie。研究作者使用原籍人口普查資料，以避免觸犯民族禁忌。人口大規模遷入的幾十年來，存取了大量的長期數據，足以用來研究第二代移民的表現。
In a word, badly. Youth unemployment of 32% for French-born citizens whose parents arrived from Africa, including sub-Saharan countries and those of the Maghreb, is twice as high as for those with no immigrant background. Fully 30% leave high school without any diploma or qualification, against 16% of those without immigrant parents. French people with parents from Africa have less stable working lives, and are more likely to live in poor neighbourhoods, than those with non-African immigrant backgrounds, the report finds.
一言以蔽之，糟糕透頂。對于來自撒哈拉以南以及馬格里布等非洲地區的第二代法國移民，其青年失業率為32%，是無移民背景人群的兩倍。高中畢業時未獲得任何學位或文憑的人數比率高達30%，而無移民背景人群所占的比率為16%。研究報告發現，與無移民背景的法國人相比，第二代非裔法國移民的工作生活不穩定，在貧窮社區生活的可能性更大。
Other studies use the data to reveal further differences by national origin. French-born citizens with parents from Morocco orTunisia, for example, seem to do better at school than those with parents from Algeria or the African Sahel. Only 10% of French men aged 25-35 with Algerian-born parents, and just 9% of those with parents from the Sahel, have a degree, against 19% of those with Moroccan or Tunisian parents and 23% of the non-immigrant population. (Among those with south-east Asian roots, the figure tops 30%.)
其他幾項研究通過這些數據進一步揭示了來自不同國家的移民之間的差異。第二代摩洛哥裔或突尼斯裔法國移民在學校的表現似乎優于第二代阿爾及利亞裔或非洲薩赫勒裔法國移民。25歲至32歲的第二代阿爾及利亞裔法國移民中，只有10%的人擁有大學學位，第二代薩赫勒裔法國移民的比率為9%，而第二代摩洛哥裔或突尼斯裔法國移民的比率為19%，無移民背景的人口比率為23%。（第二代東南亞裔法國移民的比率為30%，數量最多。）
Girls also seem to do better than boys. Just 49% of French-born men aged 20-35 with Algerian parents have passed the baccalaureat, the national school-leaving exam, compared with 58% of women (and 68% of the non-immigrant population). Those with parents from the Sahel do little better: 63% of young French-born women have the bac, and 51% of men. Interestingly, when the sexes are combined, young French citizens born to Moroccan or Tunisian parents do better at school not only than those from Algeria or the Sahel but also those born to parents from Portugal.
女孩兒的表現亦似乎優于男孩兒。20歲至35歲的第二代阿爾及利亞裔法國男士在全國學校畢業考試—高中畢業會考中的通過率為49%，而女性的通過率為58%（非移民人口的通過率為68%）。第二代薩赫勒裔法國移民的表現稍好一些：年輕女性的通過率為63%，男性的通過率為51%。有趣的是，如果不分性別，摩洛哥裔或突尼斯裔法國移民在學校的表現不僅要優于阿爾及利亞裔或薩赫勒裔法國移民，而且優于葡萄牙裔法國移民。
Such divergent patterns mirror those found in other European countries. British-born Bangladeshis have pulled away from British-born Pakistanis in terms of school results, for instance, and now perform better than white British children.
這些大相徑庭的結果映射出歐洲其他國家少數民族的發展趨勢。第二代孟加拉國裔英國移民的學校成績遠不同于第二代巴基斯坦裔英國移民，如今超過了英國白人兒童。
What explains the French pattern? History may play a part. The bloody war forAlgeria's independence may have created feelings of hostility to the French system, and general alienation, which are slow to disappear. Poverty and discrimination clearly play a role. Many French immigrants came from countries with very low living standards, like Mali, Mauritania and Niger. And coming from a poor family background, notes the France Strategie study, seems to have a stronger impact on school performance in France than it does in other comparable countries.
何以解釋這種法國模式？也許有歷史的原因。因阿爾及利亞獨立引發的血腥戰爭產生了對法國體制的敵視情緒，以及普遍的疏離感，這些皆不易消失。貧窮和種族歧視也具有明顯的作用。法國很多移民來自生活水平極低的國家，如馬里、毛里塔尼亞、尼日爾。據France Strategie的研究顯示，在法國，出身貧困對學生在學校表現的影響似乎大于其他類似國家。 翻譯：石海霞 校對：胡雅琳
譯文屬譯生譯世
