The rift in French society was highlighted yesterday as a study found that a third of big companies discriminated against north-African jobseekers.
The review of 40 large companies, ordered by the government, showed a persistent bias against second and third-generation immigrants from French former colonies.
Racial and religious tensions have grown in France since a spate of terrorist attacks and a crackdown on radical Islam. The Muslim population has said that it is being stigmatised as France seeks to curtail Islamic influence.
The study lifted the lid on a subject seen as a taboo in a country where it is illegal to ask job applicants, or anyone else, which ethnic group they belong to. The absence of ethnicity statistics — which are seen as incompatible with national unity — has enabled business to duck accusations of racism.
Myriam El Khomri, the labour minister who was born in France to a Moroccan father and a French mother, commissioned the research, which was carried out by ISM Corum.
The consultancy sent 3,000 applications in response to job advertisements by companies employing more than 1,000 people. In each case, two fictional applicants were created with a similar educational background and roughly the same work experience. One had a French-sounding name, like Aurélie Favre, Céline Parmentier or Guillaume Clerc. The other had a north African-sounding name such as Malik Sayed, Djamila Bachiri or Malik Bouna.
Forty-seven per cent of the French-sounding applicants were asked to interview, compared with 36 per cent of the north African ones.
The ministry said that 12 of the companies had been guilty of “significant” discrimination with, for instance, 75 per cent of French-sounding applicants offered an interview but only 40 per cent of those with north-African names.
Ms El Khomri had said that she would name and shame the worst offenders, but appears to have backtracked. A spokesman for the minister said that she had summoned all the companies to her office and given them an opportunity to put in place an equal opportunities policy.
Those which fail to do so “might” be named next year, the spokesman said.