Immigration as a Social Stratification Factor in Paris: A Territorial Differentiation Analysis

Abstract

Paris is one of the most interesting examples of immigrants’ settlement pattern in the city. At various historical immigration stages, different immigrants groups settled in certain areas. Immigration policy, real estate prices differentiation, and the distribution of social housing have led to the concentration in some areas people from developing and poor countries. Sometimes they create a tense situation in the region and even in the city in general. These areas combine the signs of the “ghettos”, which has been denied for a long time by authorities. Considering the immigrants territorial structure, the housing prices, incomes, distribution of social housing, unemployment, the author reveals the features of the territorial differentiation in Paris. Data on the cost of real estate prices was collected according to the author’s algorithm. The differentiation of the residential real estate market in the Paris department is an interesting case. There also was found a correlation between the housing prices and the immigrants’ settlement pattern. However, there are immigrants from developed countries (for example, the USA, Japan), and from developing once in Paris. That is why in “expensive” areas there can be observed a large share of immigrants, as well as a small one. Immigrants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia settle in the northern part of the Petit-Couronne. On the Val-de-Marne department in southeastern periphery, there is a small concentration of immigrants from Portugal. Turkish immigrants mostly live in the SeineSaint-Denis department. The ambiguous effect of the immigrants settlement pattern on income, unemployment and social housing was revealed. The comparison of all factors revealed a mosaic territorial distribution.