The Principle of Secularity and the (Mis)Use of Ethnic Statistics in France

Abstract

This paper presents elements of a work in progress on the question of multiculturalism in France. A central concept for elucidating this question is the republican principle of secularity (laïcité). After a brief presentation of this principle to get a sense of the grid of interpretation it provides, we will use this grid to analyse the use of statistics in political discourse in relation to multicultural issues. As we will see, this principle along with other constitutional dispositions, do not allow for official statistics to use categories related to ethnicity or race. This lack of data on ethnic minorities in France partly explains the "French exception" in its policy towards what is usually termed in France, cultural diversity. Since 2006, the term multiculturalism has been appropriated by government officials as well as the media to describe the traditional identity and diversity politics in France. We will see how the recurrent use of elements similar to ethnic statistics in speeches by ministers in recent governments are in fact introducing the very tools associated with communitarian multiculturalism.