2015年经济学人 法国少数民族 一项前卫调查

Ethnic¹ minorities in France

An edgy² inquiry³

A taboo⁴ on studying immigrant families' performance is fraying⁵

BY LAW, French authorities cannot collect ethnic statistics. All citizens are considered equal.

Differentiating⁶ them is felt to imply stigmatisation, or even worse to echo the singling out of Jews that took place under the collaborationist⁷ Vichy regime in the 1940s.

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.

It comes, surprisingly, from an official source: France Strategie, the government's economic-strategy unit, which is run by Jean Pisani-Ferry, an economist⁸.

The authors get round the ethnicity taboo by using census⁹ 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.

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.

Fully¹⁰ 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.

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 aged¹¹ 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%.)

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.

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.

What explains the French pattern? History may play a part.

The bloody¹² war forAlgeria's independence may have created feelings of hostility¹³ to the French system, and general alienation¹⁴,

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.

1 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

2 edgy   

adj.不安的；易怒的

参考例句：

• She's been a bit edgy lately,waiting for the exam results.她正在等待考试结果，所以最近有些焦躁不安。
• He was nervous and edgy, still chain-smoking.他紧张不安，还在一根接一根地抽着烟。

3 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

4 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

5 fraying   

v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The cuffs of his shirt were fraying. 他衬衣的袖口磨破了。
• Support for the leader was fraying at the edges. 对这位领导人的支持已经开始瓦解。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 differentiating   

[计] 微分的

参考例句：

• They succeed in differentiating the most commodity-like products. 在最通用的日用产品方面，它们也能独树一帜标新立异。
• The simplest and most effective method of differentiating areas is to use different colours. 区别面状要素最简单而又行之有效的办法，是使用不同的颜色。

7 collaborationist   

通敌卖国者

参考例句：

• Quinn headed the collaborationist government throughout the war. 奎因在战争期间领导汉奸政府。 来自柯林斯例句

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

12 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

13 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

14 alienation   

n.疏远；离间；异化

参考例句：

• The new policy resulted in the alienation of many voters.新政策导致许多选民疏远了。
• As almost every conceivable contact between human beings gets automated,the alienation index goes up.随着人与人之间几乎一切能想到的接触方式的自动化，感情疏远指数在不断上升。