Anxiety and stress at work more important for people with an immigrant background

Employees on the automotive assembly line of Renault Zoe cars at the Renault car factory in Flins, May 2020. REUTERS - GONZALO FUENTES

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2 mins

Are immigrants living in France more exposed than the rest of the population to what are called psychosocial risks at work, such as stress?

This is the question in particular that a team of researchers tried to answer.

And their answer is yes for immigrants from outside the European Union.

They are much more exposed to these risks, and not only because they more frequently occupy difficult jobs. 

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The study published this Tuesday, April 12 in the weekly epidemiological bulletin of the French public health agency

 also shows that the descendants of immigrants are also more affected by this tension at work. 

“Immigrants and descendants of immigrants in France are in fact very frequently affected by psychosocial risks at work, that is to say, to everything that will concern the risks related to the organization of work and working conditions. .

For example, when we look at the tension at work, we have 44% of immigrants from Africa who are concerned against 32% in the general population,

details Anne Gosselin, researcher at the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), the one of the authors of the study. 

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Discrimination at Work

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The study, which was based on a national survey conducted in 2016, also shows, whether among immigrants or descendants of immigrants, that it is not only the types of jobs that people hold who explain these important levels. 

“The most solid interpretation is that even once people have had access to employment (we know that there is discrimination upstream), there remains discrimination at work, emphasizes 

Anne Gosselin.

 And that could explain why even when we take into account many characteristics of employment, immigrants and descendants of immigrants, in particular from Africa, in France, are more exposed to psychosocial risks than the general population”.

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To read also: France: undocumented employees of Chronopost d'Alfortville are still asking for their regularization

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