“Ethnic statistics do not exist in France”
Are ethnic statistics in France? What about? The pilgrim decrypts the subject for you.
- Attention, sensitive field. Since mid-January, a population census campaign has been underway; It will end on February 22 in France. Nine million people living in 15,000 municipalities will be asked to answer INSEE questions. New to the investigation: the French now have the possibility of declaring the country of birth of their parents (optional question). A practice that can lead to the constitution of ethnic statistics and which seems against the current French universalist principles. The 1978 law relating to data processing, files and freedoms also prohibits “processing data revealing racial or ethnic origin”. But in reality, the collection of so -called “ethnic” statistics is allowed, in the event of “scientific or historical research or for statistical purposes. »(Article 9 of the RGPD Regulation).
- That exactly covers the term “ethnic statistics” ? On this subject, no consensus. “It is an opaque term, because it refers to two definitions,” specifies Sylvie Le Minez, demographer to INSEE. The first is ethnoracial, that is to say based on skin color, the second is based on geographic origins. Whatever the definition chosen, the derogations of article 9 of the GDPR give the possibility of conducting studies embracing the two. “It is still necessary that the National Council for Statistical Information Judge time,” continues Sylvie Le Minez. We must prove their usefulness in the context of a clear and explicit purpose. »»
- In France, this data is rarely used. The only exception: New Caledonia. There, the ethnic distinctions appear in the census. During the last financial year, in 2019, 41 % of the population declared Kanak, 24 % European and 8 % Wallisian and Futunian.
- Anglo-Saxon countries, themselves, collect this information for a long time To refine their public policies. In France, this practice remains poorly seen. On January 19, Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior, expressed his reserve: “Ethnic statistics, I have always been wary. I don’t want them to lead, as in the United States, to positive discrimination. »»
