France: "The Suburban Effect"

Public housing projects were expanded after the cold winter in 1954 in the aftermath of World War II. They were dramatically increased at the end of the decolonization period, when lots of French living abroad returned, as well as other French natives from former colonies. The French state decided to complement the supply of low rent apartments by a lodging benefit created in 1977 for low-income households. In order to be eligible to live in one of these housing projects, one has to apply. People apply because the lodging benefit is, most of the time, identical to the rent paid in these public projects. Since by law French institutions cannot discriminate on the basis of citizenship, minority status, or religious affiliation, the only way to choose qualified residents is by looking at income levels. Consequently, everybody living in the public projects has a very low income. For example, the yearly household average taxable income in 2001 was 28,433 euros for the whole of France while it was around 19,000 euros in the housing projects. Aside from being a consequence of the selection requirement, this income disparity also creates an over-additive effect which I call the “suburban effect”. Indeed, living in a suburb and being surrounded by people who are all in social transition does not foster an incentive to work more at school (41% of boys and 32% of girls in Middle-Schools are one year late or more against around 25% for the French average including the suburbs numbers), or even to have a positive outlook on one’s prospects for success in society at large. Although the overall population living in the public projects declined from 4.7 million to 4.5 million inhabitants from 1990 to 1999, the profile of the newcomers is sociologically identical as a result of the eligibility criteria. Between 1990 and 1999, 1 million people left an apartment not in a housing project to live in one (see the 2005 report of the Observatoire National des zones Urbaines Sensibles). There are other startling statistics.  People between 20 and 35 years old constitute 42% of the newcomers. Young people between 7 and 30 years old leave their parents later than the people not living in projects. Both the lower level in terms of education, and less job offers explain this delay in residential autonomy. For men, the unemployment rate varies dramatically depending on your education: a man with more than 2 years at the university will face an unemployment rate of 15.3% when living in a project, and 5.7% otherwise. A man with 2 years at the university will face an unemployment rate of 8.9% when living in a project, and 4.8% otherwise. A man without any diploma will face a rate of 26.6% when living in a housing project, and 10.2% otherwise. The overall unemployment rate for men living in a suburb is 19.3%, and 6.9% elsewhere. The overall unemployment rate is 9.8% in France, but this number is meaningless since there is such a high discrepancy between the people living in public housing and those who are not. The causality is tough to read, and this aspect is first explained by the eligibility criteria: you need to have a low income to live in a public project. But the reason why young people would go to school for less time than their counterparts living outside the suburbs is related to the social environment. Only unsuccessful paths lead individuals into housing project and this path becomes cyclical.