Social protection and labour market policies for vulnerable groups from a social investment perspective. The case of Youth Employment Initiative in France (RE-InVEST working paper series D5.1)

This report was prepared in the framework of the Europe H2020 project ‘Rebuilding an inclusive, value based Europe of solidarity and trust through social investments’ (RE-InVEST). The project adopts a par­ticipative approach that lends a voice to vulnerable groups and civil society organisations. The theoretical framework applied in the Re-InVEST project builds on a human rights and capabilities approach.

In France, the team includes IRD (academic research) and GRDR (association); we chose to work with immigrant populations from West Africa living in the Paris region (in the Ile-de-France region and particu­larly in the department of Seine Saint-Denis) in the priority areas designated by urban policies, that is to say, neighbourhoods defined according to the level of poverty. In these neighbourhoods, the share of immi­grants or descendants of non-European immigrants is high (mainly from North or West Africa).

We have considered, in this part of the project, the difficulties of integration into the labour market of the young immigrants or descendants of immigrants living in these neighbourhoods, aged between 16 and 25 years. These young people, that are from poor families and living in less-favoured areas, are often exposed to chaotic school routes and to difficulties of access to employment, because of a build-up of several diffi­culties: low level of training, discrimination linked to their origins, to their living space or their gender, the low mobility, the gap in the relational codes because of the low social mix of the neighbourhoods in which they live. The crisis strengthened disparities on the labour market, including within the youth, which is not at a homogeneous category.

 Many devices have been set up to facilitate the insertion of young people in the labour market and these measures are regularly improved or renewed. The YEI (Youth Employment Initiative) is a search for inno­vation and diversification of actions, with the to reinforce the quality of the support offered to young people, the greatest security of the pathways of young who are defined as ‘NEET’ (Nor in education, in employ­ment, or in training) .The system is more flexible, but without financial allocation . It is linked to the need to take into account, besides difficulties in accessing the labour market, social, educational, economic, psy­chological and somatic difficulties, through a highly individualised accompaniment and a diversity of modes of action: individual interviews, theatre workshop, digital workshop, etc.

The implementation of the YEI constitutes, for the GRDR, an opportunity to experiment an approach of accompaniment for the occupational integration of young NEET people from 16 to 25 years old living in Seine Saint-Denis. Our approach is comparative, comprehensive and operational, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. In this respect, participation in the Re-Invest study of the beneficiaries of the YEI scheme was sought, particularly through collective times. The aim was to make the interviewed people co-producers of the research. However, due to constraints related to the young people (mobility, etc.) and to the modalities of the inquiry (participation in the study, departure of the PhD student, ...), we then favoured the involvement of the team in charge of the technical implementation of the YEI system, that is to say the two mission managers in order to get them to analyse their accompanying practices, in relation to the situ­ations of young people.

In a context of public policies promoting the principles of accountability, contractualisation (and condition­alities), the implementation of the YEI nevertheless enabled the GRDR to experiment with an approach and methods allowing the construction of paths of autonomy and professional projects. The results of the inquiry lead us to formulate the following conclusions, in form of recommendations:

• The imbrication of the needs of young people requires the design of support devices that take into account in an articulated manner the different variables affecting the integration pathways and the professional plans: level of training, family situations, administrative situations and socio-economic conditions, social positioning, possible psychological difficulties, self-esteem and self-confidence. Acting only on the job search process is thus largely insufficient for many young people.
• As such, the issue coordination and accompaniment of actors is one of the other major stakes revealed by the study. The analysis of social situations and the review of young people touched by the IE trajecto­ries, report successions of accompaniments without links between the professionals and frequent ruptures of administrative management. On the other hand, there is often a lack of consultation between the actors of the accompaniment on the procedures to be implemented and the definition of the courses.
• The training of professionals proves to be an already identified need, which is confirmed by the present study. It may be interesting, however, to integrate beneficiary participation in a renewed form of produc­tion of practices and accompanying knowledge.