ABSTRACT
Second-generation foreigners in the labor market can be characterized as having an important presence in only a few sectors of economic activity, as holding low-skilled jobs, and as encountering longer than normal delays in obtaining either a first job or a new job. Two aspects of the situation of young foreigners in France, as they have been defined in legal terms and evaluated statistically, are studied: their relations with the working world, and their relations with the host society. Three successive approaches are used to analyze the working life situation of the second-generation migrants: a statistical analysis, a study of regulations governing access to employment, and a more qualitative description of working conditions and the jobs held by these young people. Every year the number of young foreigners going to school increases, both in absolute figures and as a percentage of the total population.
