Immigrants, Natives and the French Welfare State: Explaining Different Interactions with a Social Welfare Program

Abstract

This research note examines immigrants and natives’ interactions with foyers d'hébergement or lodging hostels in France. These populations differ in how they locate foyers, the importance they attach to the social dimensions of this institution, and their responses to its social control function. North African and especially Algerian immigrants show the greatest differences from the French. Ethnicity accounts for the variation between immigrants and natives’ methods of entering the foyers. Length of residence in France plays a great role in shaping immigrants’ responses to the foyer as a social institution and as a social control mechanism. These findings demonstrate how the welfare state affects immigrants differently from natives, and the respective roles of ethnicity and the migration-adaptation process.