Questioning social reproduction theory: North African working-class migrants in France and their families

This article focuses on the aspirations and mobilizations of immigrants from Maghreb countries living in France. Nation-wide statistical surveys have shown that, while most of them are employed as workers and their level of education is quite low, their children get better school grades than children of native (French) workers. This finding questions the validity for immigrant families of Bourdieu and Passeron’s well-established ‘theory of reproduction’ which states that school achievement is strongly dependent on parents’ cultural and economic capital. The author has done fieldwork in deprived areas by collecting family case histories, while also doing secondary analysis of nationwide statistical surveys. Both methods have reached complementary conclusions. Surveys show that immigrants from Maghreb countries, too poor to get a good education, nevertheless value it strongly. They compensate their lack of education by other means and mobilizations. They are keen to take advantage of the fact that in France education is free. Crossing both approaches brings a new understanding of the enigma.