American Behavioral Scientist

Amiraux, Valérie ;Guiraudon, Virginie

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368092pmid: N/A

This introduction to a pluridisciplinary comparative analysis of European antidiscrimination policies and practices provides a critical assessment of current European empirical developments and the analytical issues that they raise. The authors’ argument builds upon the tension between the improvement of the protection of rights to equal treatment and the intensification of xenophobia in the European Union. Can proequality policies developed in a hostile context make a difference? The first part of the introduction provides an analytical framework to account for the emergence and implementation of an antidiscrimination policy framework in the European Union. The second part assesses the limits of this new paradigm in particular as far as the categorization and measurement of discrimination are concerned. It focuses on the broader impact of the development of antidiscrimination policies and jurisprudence and on the way “vulnerable populations” have made use of it.

de Witte, Bruno

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368093pmid: N/A

The principle of equality is an important part of the contemporary constitutional law of all European countries. It is therefore a “common” principle, and was, as such, also integrated in the legal system of the European Communities. However, this common principle of equality was modernized and modified by a series of specific antidiscrimination laws adopted in the European Union, mainly during the past decade. This contribution explores the ways in which those recent antidiscrimination laws have modified the traditional understanding of equality law in Europe and are giving “teeth” to the abstract principle of equality.

Mason, Luke

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368094pmid: N/A

The “Race Directive,” along with the rest of the recent European Union expansion of its body of equality law, was welcomed with huge acclaim and fanfare, predictably by the Commission, but also by much academic writing. Now that this has subsided, it is necessary to engage in a sober analysis of the contents of the directive. Although the directive has been seen as embodying a huge shift in conceptions of equality and discrimination, and as part of an emerging European social citizenship, a closer examination of the provisions of the directive reveals something quite different: an ambivalence towards broader reaching conceptions of equality, a repeating of the mistakes of the past, and a series of delegations of key decisions regarding the potentially most progressive aspects of the legislation to other actors. This article suggests that whereas the directive contains many positive aspects, to a large extent it represents an exercise in passing the buck, given the hollowness of many of the seemingly expansive provisions. This means that our focus must shift onto member states and other actors, who have traditionally been conspicuously inactive in the field of race discrimination.

Bowen, John R.

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368095pmid: N/A

In this article, the author explores resemblances and overlaps of very different regimes of religious governance, the secular and the religious, in the ways they address religious discrimination. The author defines religious discrimination broadly and considers the possible solutions available to those (usually) democratic states that respond to complaints of discrimination. The author considers two limit cases: Indonesia, which bases its Islamic judicial system on scripture; and France, which proclaims that it does not recognize or support any religion. The author argues that although these two countries begin at opposite ideological positions with respect to the state’s relationship to religion, in fact they adopt policy positions that share several features, including granting formal privileges to recognized religions and maintaining the state’s legal superiority to scripture as the source of law. The author argues, not that this overlap is to be expected in all cases, even of democratic societies responsive to discrimination claims, but that we ought to pursue further comparative research into its scope.

Lépinard, Eléonore

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368096pmid: N/A

In Canada, women’s rights organizations have successfully mobilized the law to foster gender equality. In doing so, they have been constrained by legal understandings of equality and discrimination, which have shaped their strategies to seek justice. In return, their mobilization, mainly through litigation, has contributed to craft or to alter legal categories (such as “substantive equality,” “women,” “sexual harassment,” etc.), which in turn sustain their identities and their interests. However, claims made in the name of gender equality raise two issues: They tend to overlook the intersection of gender with other grounds of discrimination such as religion or race/ethnicity; and they tend to conflict with multiculturalism, a value enshrined in Canadian law. The recent decision taken by the province of Ontario to ban religious arbitration for family matters offers an illuminating case study of this tension between gender equality and religious rights in the Canadian context. This article analyzes women’s rights activists’ legal understandings of gender equality and religious/ethnic discrimination to explain how these representations have influenced women’s mobilization against religious arbitration in Ontario. Bringing together the insights developed by critical legal studies about intersectionality and the study of legal mobilization, this articles explores through a concrete example the tension between feminism and multiculturalism.

Sala Pala, Valérie

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368097pmid: N/A

In this article, the author compares the way in which anti-(ethnic) discrimination policies regarding access to social housing are implemented on the ground in Britain and France through case studies in Birmingham and Marseilles. Beyond sharp differences in the conceptions and “philosophies” of antidiscrimination policies in those two national “models” (a differentialist conception in Britain versus a universalist conception in France), the author shows the limits of these policies on the ground in both cases. In particular, the author shows how (a) the way in which ethnic discrimination is locally constructed as a public issue and (b) the constraints and contradictions faced by local institutions and street-level bureaucrats dealing with social housing on a day-to-day basis contribute to their failure.

Veenman, Justus

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368098pmid: N/A

The labor market is a distribution mechanism that assigns individuals to differently rated positions. Labor market processes therefore lead to social inequality. The question of whether social descent, age, gender, ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation plays a role in these processes is thus as important as it is delicate. This article describes four main methods to empirically investigate discrimination. These methods are systematically compared on methodological and substantial criteria. Dutch labor market research on the effects of ethnic origin is used to clarify the methods. Particular attention is paid to access to jobs, whereas wage discrimination is briefly discussed. The general conclusion is that no one method is superior. For this reason, it is advisable to use triangulation, that is, a combination of methods to reveal discrimination.

Phalet, Karen; Heath, Anthony

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368099pmid: N/A

From the perspective of segmented assimilation in the United States, a key question is whether the children of immigrant workers in European societies will experience socio-economic inclusion (“assimilation”) or exclusion (“segmentation”). This study focuses on the Turkish second generation in European cities as a critical case of ethnic segmentation. In particular, the analysis examines the role of urban contexts as moderators of “ethnic penalties” on socio-economic attainment. Using Census data, the authors find large net ethnic penalties for the Turkish second generation in the urban area of Brussels, where they make up the bottom end of the ethnic hierarchy. In comparison to the second generation living outside the urban area, however, they are more often in paid work, less rarely self-employed, and less totally excluded from high-end jobs. Our comparative findings run counter to common negative portrayals of post-industrial urban economies as a mobility trap for the children of immigrants. Instead, they suggest an upside to differential ethnic boundary dynamics in urban economic centers versus their national peripheries. To conclude, the authors discuss comparative implications for the fortunes of the second generation in European urban economies.

Lefranc, Arnaud

doi: 10.1177/0002764210368100pmid: N/A

This article makes two contributions to the empirical analysis of the socioeconomic achievement of ethnic minorities. The first contribution is methodological. The author relies on a discussion of the concept of equality of opportunity to analyze how the disadvantage suffered by ethnic minorities should be defined and empirically measured. The second contribution is empirical. The author estimates the disadvantage suffered by second-generation immigrants in the access to education, employment, and earnings in France. Contrary to most papers in this area, the author identifies second-generation immigrants in a consistent way, using information of parental geographic and national origin. He also discusses the extent to which measured earnings differentials reflect ethnic discrimination or ethnic-blind social inequalities.