Education and Employment: understanding the labour market experiences of graduate minority ethnic women in France and the UK.

Abstract

Recent evidence shows that second generation, descendants of non-White minority ethnic immigrants, born and educated in OECD countries, face inequalities in the labour market when compared to similarly qualified white individuals, especially during their school to work transition (OECD, 2010). Second generation minority ethnic women are doubly penalised being more likely than young men to encounter difficulties in finding stable jobs despite high educational qualifications. The qualitative research reported here examines the professional experiences of second generation Algerian and Pakistani graduate women in France and the UK. The aim is to investigate the ways in which these women negotiate their social positioning as they attempt to achieve stable professional positions in republican France and multicultural Britain.