Schooling, Citizen-Making, and Anti-Immigrant Prejudice in France

Abstract

Are schools an effective institution to build citizenship and to transmit values associated with a given citizenship regime? A survey of 300 middle and high school pupils showed that for pupils, the representation of the French citizenship model is structured in two dimensions, ‘republican citizenship’ (or colorblind equality) and ‘new laïcité’ (or secularism), replicating previous research among adults. Moreover, the results support the schools’ effectiveness in the transmission of republican values by showing that in the mainstream track, older high school pupils endorse more strongly than younger school pupils both the principle of republican citizenship and new laïcité. The fact that this is not the case for pupils in a professional track suggests that these results are not simply a question of age but of schooling. Finally, support is found for a theoretical model suggesting that these two principles of the French citizenship model mediate the effect of schooling on prejudice. The implications of these results for current theories of intergroup relations are discussed.