Emilie Falguières
Segregation or ethnic enclaves
The issue of segregation is common to most cities in the world. Segregation encompasses
the isolation of a particular group from the rest of the society. It can have different forms
and intensity and may be ethnic or social. The segregation of African-Americans is, for
example, notably based on ethnicity. Discrimination and previous legal targeting of this
minority are some of the elements that explain this segregation. In France, segregation is
equally strong for some parts of the population, particularly immigrants and their
descendants. However, the strong concentration of migrants in one area is not necessarily
a bad sign for some communities. Indeed, ethnic associations and networks often provide
useful assets for the new migrants to integrate and to find employment in their new
country of residence. In that case, research refers to ethnic enclaves to discuss isolation of
groups from the rest of the population. However, segregation can reinforce inequalities.
The issue is therefore to identify the sources of possible segregation while taking into
account the assets of ethnic network and communities.
1. Do low-income populations have as an easy access to public services
(parks, museums, expositions, etc.) as middle-income and highincome populations in the suburbs of Paris?
I will look at how far are public services from the population according to their social
class in the suburbs of Paris. Indeed, France do not provide data on ethnicity or religion,
it is therefore very difficult to look at ethnic segregation. However, minorities are often
from the low-income class.
The objective is to establish the annual income of the population and for comparison with
its distance from some public services such as hospitals, police stations, museums, parks,
etc. I will also look at the cost and time of transportation from home to those places and
compare it with the income. This measure will be a good way to see if poor populations
have as much access to public services as rich populations. Indeed, public services are
destined to level inequalities between those that can afford private services and those that
cannot.

Pinçon Michel, Pinçon-Charlot Monique, Les ghettos du gotha. Comment la
bourgeoisie défend ses espaces, Editions du Seuil, 2007
For this first question, this book written by these two French sociologists inspired me.
They have studied rich enclaves in the suburbs of Paris and have argued that very highincome communities are voluntarily segregated. They as well argued that this rich elite
not only often has a better access to public spaces, but that they also appropriate those
spaces and infrastructure.

Mobilité, accessibilité et équité : pour un renouvellement de l’analyse des
inégalités sociales d’accès à la ville
Sylvie Fol (Université Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne, UMR Géographie - Cités)
Caroline Gallez (LVMT-IFSTTAR)
This paper looks at the issues of accessibility and mobility for low-income populations. It
reminds that the main indicators used in the literature to measure accessibility are
location-based measures, individual’s accessibility indicators, and utility-based measures.
 Cumber, Alexis, Brunsdon Chris, Green, Edmund, Using a GIS-based network
analysis to determine urban greenspace accessibility for different ethnic and
religious groups, Landscape and Urban planning, 2008
https://lra.le.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/2381/4649/1/8a.%20comber_et_al_greenspaces_lup_re
submission_mod.pdf
Using GIS, this paper examines how ethnic minorities in different cities have access to
green areas.
Data: Data regarding income is available from the INSEE (National institute of statistics
and economic studies) via their website: http://www.insee.fr/en/default.asp
2. What is the distance from home to work for low-, middle- and highincome populations in the suburbs of Paris? What type of
transportation is used?
The time taken to travel to the job place is often a burden in big cities such as Paris. This
question can show inequalities in term of access to work and provide useful incentive and
indication for policy regarding public transportation.

Work Together, Live Apart? Geographies of Racial and Ethnic Segregation at
Home and at Work Author(s): Mark Ellis, Richard Wright, Virginia Parks
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 94, No. 3 (Sep., 2004),
pp. 620-637
http://www.elegantbrain.com/edu4/classes/readings/depository/race/resid_segreg_latin_el
lis_wrig_park.pdf
This paper is interesting for its look at how much segregation exists in the workplace in
comparison to the neighborhoods of those same Mexicans and natives.
Data: I could not find data on households’ job places.
3. Using the index of dissimilarity, how much segregated are
communities in Mumbai, India and what is the impact on ethnic
conflict ?
The index of dissimilarity is one of the main indexes of segregation. This spatial analysis
may show potential correlation between high level of ethnic conflict such as riots and
segregation.

Gayer Laurent, Jaffrelot, Christophe, Muslims in Indian Cities: trajectories of
marginalization, Columbia University Press, 2012
Data: No data found on dissimilarity index regarding ethnic groups.
4. Over the last 20-30 years, what has been the density of ethnic
associations (services or religious centers) in the city of Marseille?
This question will allow an analysis of how ethnic communities organize themselves and
how much ethnic communities strengthen their community, or on the contrary assimilate
and loosen ethnic ties.

Deborah Phillips, Ethnic and Racial Segregation: A Critical Perspective,
Geography Compass, Volume 1, Issue 5, September 2007
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.17498198.2007.00051.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=fa
lse
This paper focuses on the different definitions of ethnic segregation and at how much
ethnic clustering can facilitate integration.
Data: No data on ethnicity is officially available in France and I have not found data on
ethnic networks or associations.