Ségrégation: les instruments de mesure.

With the rise of the Front National, the unearthing of hotbeds of Jihadism and polemics around whether there is social, or even ethnic, apartheid in certain districts, France has, since the January 2015 terrorist attacks, seen an increased level of debate on the existence of social ghettos and the sociology of the individuals who might live in them. And yet, as Bernard Aubry and Michele Tribalat show here, there are very few reliable figures on which to build an argument one way or another, particularly regarding the origins of the population groups concerned. And the traditional indicators, supposing that they exist and are backed up correctly by the demographic surveys, are not necessarily the most pertinent for observing the sociological evolution of a population in a particular territory and its potential segregation. Drawing on a recent analysis carried out in the USA, Aubry and Tribalat show the relevance and importance of so-called neighbourhood segregation indicators that make it possible to assess the concentration of populations (on a socioprofessional or communal basis) much more subtly and in very precise geographical detail. Using old data available in France, they explain how these kinds of indicators could be developed in that country and what information they would be capable of providing. At the same time, they deprecate the scant interest shown in this by the official statistical institutes, if not indeed their hostility to it. This is an impasse which is, to say the least, deplorable, since whatever the positions defended by the various parties to the debates cited above, they need to be supported by precise data, as it is only on the basis of such data that appropriate political responses can be proposed.