Climbing the Ladder: The Intergenerational Mobility of Second-Generation Immigrants in France (with Simone Moriconi, Ahmed Tritah and Nadiya Ukrayinchuk) - working paper here
Abstract
This paper provides new evidence on intergenerational social mobility among immigrants and natives in France. Using linked parent–child census data, we introduce the Intergenerational Mobility Indicator (IMI), an individual-level measure capturing both upward and downward mobility relative to parents, based on education and income. Our results show that 2nd generation immigrants display a robust mobility premium, attaining predicted income ranks on average eleven percentiles above observationally comparable natives. This advantage is most pronounced among women, children with two immigrant parents, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Educational gains partly account for the gap, but labor-market trajectories emerge as the primary driver. Local context exerts a lasting influence on life-course outcomes. Internal migration appears as a key mechanism, with immigrants disproportionately moving toward areas of greater social and economic dynamism. Spatial analysis further reveals marked heterogeneity: some places act as “lands of opportunity,” fostering upward mobility, while others are associated with stagnation or decline, with distinct patterns across immigrants and natives. These findings highlight the interplay between individual characteristics and local environments in long-term integration, and point to the potential of place-sensitive policies to enhance equality of opportunity.
Higher Education Expansion and the Upward Mobility of Immigrant Families in France - ongoing work, JMP
Abstract
This paper examines the democratization of higher education with a focus on immigrants' children. I assess the differential causal impact of a higher education expansion plan in France on intergenerational social mobility. This 1990's reform primarily targeted remote areas. This study relies on a newly constructed dataset on higher education institutions in France, combined with individual-level administrative data. I apply a matching strategy and a two-way fixed-effects design interacted with a parental-origin dummy. At equal parental income, each additional higher education unit is associated with a 1-percentile greater increase in the child’s income percentile for immigrants compared to natives. The creation of higher education units reduces the negative impacts of spatial segregation, and has local spillovers benefiting immigrants. These results are driven mostly by groups facing the greatest barriers on the labor market, such as women, individuals of low social backgrounds or with African ancestry.
Gender Norms, Cultural Gap Transmission and Sense of Home (with Muriel Bour & Thomas Baudin) - working paper here
Abstract
Differences in norms and traditions between immigrants and their host society are known to shape integration behaviors and the ways parents socialize their children. However, less is known about how the cultural distance between immigrants and natives at the time of arrival affects the integration of the second generation. Approaching culture through the lens of gender norms, this paper examines how the cultural gap experienced by first-generation migrants upon arrival shapes the multidimensional integration of their children in France. Our contribution is to measure cultural distance in a time-varying, arrival-cohort-specific way: using a dynamic index of gender norms, we construct the distance between France and each parent’s country of origin at the time of migration, allowing cultural exposure to differ across arrival cohorts within the same origin group. We show that greater parental cultural distance is associated with a weaker sense of belonging to France among second-generation immigrants, while having small or no impact on labor-market outcomes. These relationships exhibit little heterogeneity by education or gender. Evidence on mechanisms points to the intergenerational transmission of more conservative views on gender roles and to larger attitudinal gaps with natives. Negative attitudes of natives towards immigrants act as a catalyst for these effects.
Masters thesis : Early Childhood Development, fertility and peer effects in Nepal (supervised by Elodie Djemai)