A first : cross-country study looks at social integration among minority adolescents

An international research group has published the conclusions of a study focused on juvenile delinquency among ethnic and religious minorities from five different Western countries. Through the prism of delinquency, the study examines the social integration of minorities and concludes that interaction with public institutions and the living conditions of these young people contribute to different patterns of integration depending on the country. Researchers from the PACTE research unit (CNRS/Sciences Po Grenoble/University Grenoble Alpes) and colleagues published their results in September 2018 in the form of a book ( Springer publishing). Five countries with five different social models – France, the United States, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom – served as the basis for a single study into the social integration of ethno-religious minority youth, entitled “Understanding and preventing youth crime”. A team of French researchers and a dozen counterparts in the countries studied asked approximately 10,000 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 14 to complete the same questionnaire ¹ . As a result, for the first time ever, macro and micro integration mechanisms in these different countries could be compared ² . The study shows said they had engaged in illegal downloading at some point in the year.