Lazy islanders - stereotypes impacting people from French overseas departments

With Yannick L’Horty, professor of Economics at Université Gustave Eiffel and Alice Murgier, head of the Legal Hub at SOS Racisme.

As highlighted by an activist from the collective “Réonés déracinés” on La Réunion, “Creole laziness” is perhaps the most common stereotype about residents of these departments. Not only is such prejudice painful and humiliating for the people who experience it, but it also has an impact on their access to employment. This has been shown by the results of the study MELODI-DOM (Local Measurement of Discrimination in French Overseas Departments).

The first discrimination testing based on origin from French overseas departments

MELODI-DOM involved carrying out discrimination testing¹ in Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Réunion and Paris. The aim was to measure discrimination experienced by people from French overseas departments and residents of priority urban districts² in access to employment. The test, the first of its kind to focus on origin from French overseas territories as a factor for discrimination, was undertaken in May 2021 in over 1,000 restaurants, focusing on the post of waiter

Raising public awareness around discrimination

Led by the research federation on Theory and Evaluation of Public Policies (TEPP - CNRS), MELODI-DOM also had the aim of communicating around this phenomenon, in order to raise awareness amongst the general public and decision-makers alike. With this in mind, the SOS Racisme association contributed its expertise in communication as a co-leader of the study and organised a press conference in late 2021.

¹Discrimination testing involves submitting two profiles for the same purpose (job interview, apartment visit, doctor's appointment, etc.) that are similar in all ways except for criteria that may be basis for discrimination: origin, disability, age, gender, etc.

² Districts covered by urban policy aiming to restore the French principle of equality in the poorest areas and to improve living conditions for residents in these areas.

Texts written by the Kogito agency after interviewing the co-sponsors.