To count or not to count
A new effort to gather data on ethnic origins is stirring up a fuss
HOW can a country decide if ethnic minorities are thriving when it refuses to acknowledge they even exist? France has grappled with this conundrum for years. Under its egalitarian ethos, it treats all citizens the same, refusing to group them into ethnic categories. It is forbidden by law to collect statistics referring to “racial or ethnic origin”. Yet even the casual visitor notices how multi-ethnic France is—and how few non-whites have top jobs. Now a new plan seeks to make it possible to measure “diversity”. Yazid Sabeg, the government's diversity commissioner, has set up a group to find the best way to collect information.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “To count or not to count”
From the March 28th 2009 edition
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