Leaving the nest in immigrant neighbourhoods: gender and origin differences in France

ABSTRACT

This article investigates patterns of leaving the parental home in immigrant-dense neighbourhoods by gender and immigrant origin. We draw on a unique large sample, individual-level panel, the Permanent Demographic Sample (1990–2013), matched with neighbourhood-level census data, to track three types of transitions out of the parental home: leaving for an unmarried union, marriage, or independent living. The findings show that growing up in an immigrant-dense neighbourhood is associated with a decreased likelihood of leaving the parental home net of individual, family and contextual controls. Yet patterns vary by gender and origin. French majority youth, Southern European origin women and Sub-Saharan African men are more likely to remain in the parental home when they originate in an immigrant-dense neighbourhood. For others, particularly North African women, growing up in an immigrant-dense neighbourhood is linked to more frequent departures from the parental home to enter marriage. Opposite patterns are found for French majority and Asian origin women. Variation in home-leaving by neighbourhood environments is generally more pronounced for women. We discuss these trajectories in light of socioeconomic disadvantage and normative constraints in immigrant areas and residential sorting.

Acknowledgements

This article is dedicated to the memory of Matthieu Solignac. We are also grateful to the members of the 2019 Alp-Pop Conference, colleagues at the Institut national d'études démographiques, the anonymous reviewers, and the editor for their suggestions. This work has been funded by the French National Research Agency (grant ANR-16-CE41-0007-01).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Including both French-born and foreign-born children of immigrants.

2 From 1968 to 1999, individuals born on the first four days of October were included in the panel; since 2006, 16 birthdays are used in January, April, July and October. This ensures coverage of approximately 1/100th of the population until 1999 and 1/25th since 2006.

3 The periodicity of EDP follows that of the French census. From 1968 until 1999, the French census was conducted on the entire population every 7–9 years. As of 2004, it is conducted every year on a portion of the population such that a full census is completed every five years. Likewise, 5 years must be aggregated to obtain a complete EDP wave. We compile years 2004–2008 and 2009–2013 to form the most recent panel waves and control for period of observation in all models. Prior studies show that the change in census collection does not bias mobility studies at a national level (Pan Ké Shon 2007).

4 French acronym for “aggregated units for statistical information.” IRIS were not implemented until 1999, prior to which the infra-municipality division used was the îlot. We used the îlot/IRIS correspondence table provided by INSEE to match the 1990 îlots with the 1999 IRIS.

5 Childhood and adulthood status is identified using a variable defining the individual’s position within the household.

6 Repeated individual observations are possible as individuals may be observed as children at more than one date.

7 There is a small risk that the same individual will be counted twice in the census, in particular if an individual resides simultaneously in two households. This could be the case for students who may be counted both in university dwellings as well as in the parental home. However, estimations of double counts are low, representing less than 2% of observations in the new census (Toulemon, Durier, and Marteau 2018). These cases are most frequent among students and children under the age of 18. Thus, the age restriction we implement in the analysis allows us to reduce the potential number of double counts.

8 In France, both country of birth and nationality at birth are typically used to define immigrant status. This is because return colonials and expats are not considered immigrants; despite having been born abroad, they have French citizenship at birth. To avoid confounding children of return colonials or expats with the immigrant origin sample, we exclude children whose parents are French citizens at birth and born outside of France.

9 These represent the largest immigrant origin groups in France. Sample sizes of children of migrants from other parts of the world are too small and are removed from the analysis.

10 Laos, Viet-Nam and Cambodia

11 In France, social class is measured using a socio-professional categorization that incorporates occupation with social class hierarchies. For parental occupation and education, we take the highest level achieved by the father or the mother.

12 Models using robust standard errors clustered at the neighborhood level were also estimated and gave consistent results.

13 This variable measures, out of the total neighborhood population, the share of immigrants in the neighborhood of the same origin group as the individual. For instance, for an individual of North African origin, it is equal to the share of North African immigrants in the neighborhood.