“France that is doing badly, we find it everywhere”, underlines Louis Maurin, director of the Observatory of inequalities. Indeed, its annual report on poverty in France, presented on Tuesday, describes a fairly fragmented geography of poverty. This shows that the 4.8 million most disadvantaged people (who receive less than 940 euros per month for a single person*) live in large cities (36.5%) or in the neighboring suburbs (26.4%). Followed by those who live in peri-urban areas (30.7%) and in rural areas (6.4%).
If large centers host a high percentage of disadvantaged people, it is in particular due to the fact that they have numerous social housing units: “Since the 1960s, large centers that had the means have made a massive effort to build large complexes which have attracted the most disadvantaged categories”, he underlines Louis Maurin. Furthermore, the Solidarity and Urban Renewal (SRU) law, promulgated in 2000, required large municipalities to have 25% of social housing on their territory. This has had an impact on the social composition of these cities. “Some, who had not done this work in favor of social diversity, have caught up”, points out Louis Maurin.
Five cities of Réunion strongly affected by poverty
Of course, not all of the most disadvantaged French people have access to social housing. And while soaring private housing rents have hit big cities hard, many poor people still live there. But they have access to smaller and lower quality housing than they did twenty years ago. “The highly concentrated employment in the big cities attracts many young job seekers,” comments Louis Maurin. Many poor immigrants who arrive in France also settle there. “Because they often become part of a community there”, underlines the director of the Observatory on inequalities.
Cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants that concentrate the poorest are located abroad. five cities of The meeting in the lead the cities with the highest poverty rate (44 or 45%): Saint-Benoît, Le Port, Saint-Louis, Saint-André and Saint-Joseph. “These territories are undermined by a very high rate of unemployment and the high cost of living”, underlines Louis Maurin. But we also count Roubaix (North), which has a poverty rate of 43%. And this is due to the deindustrialization of the city, which has caused unemployment to explode.
Particularly disadvantaged neighborhoods
This geography of poverty also shows that poverty is concentrated in certain neighborhoods of large cities. Like the neighborhood of the “Nicaea social residence” in Nice, the one called “Pous du Plan” in Carpreentras, or the “Bas Vernet ex Zus”, located in Perpignan. Neighborhoods where young people, single parents and immigrants are overrepresented. And where the share of inhabitants without a diploma sometimes exceeds 50%. Unemployment and precarious work are therefore more prevalent there.
As for the suburban municipalities, those ofIle-de-France are very affected by poverty: it is the case of Grigni (Essonne), Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) and La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis). “The lack of jobs and public or private services further complicates the living conditions of these people,” observes Louis Maurin.
The harmful effects of the concentration of poverty
In rural areas, if poverty is less serious, “sometimes it is more lasting there”, observes the Observatory of Inequalities. In particular because it is lived by retirees with scarce resources, who have little hope of seeing their economic situation improve.
Ultimately, this table shows that while poverty is distilled in many French territories, it is often concentrated in a few pockets. A harmful concentration: “It weighs particularly on the success of children because the schooling of many low-level students who accumulate social difficulties makes their learning more difficult,” underlines Louis Maurin. One way to underline once again the importance of city policies.
