Immigrant Child Poverty in France

Abstract

Following Chapter 4 on the situation of immigrant children in Switzerland, we now examine their situation in France, another rich country in Western Europe. In 2004, the French Council on Employment, Incomes and Social Cohesion (CERC) estimated that roughly 1 million children in France were living below the French poverty rate of 50 per cent of the median income. Roughly 74 per cent of these children were in families headed by persons of French nationality. Roughly 26 per cent were living in families headed by persons of recent and not so recent immigration. The actual number of poor children, immigrant and non-immigrant, is probably higher today given the recent demographic trends (Martin, 2007, pp. 43–9).