Une introduction

The social sciences have produced both theoretically and empirically a large literature in order to explain why urban areas are socially differentiated, and also the consequences of this urban specialization on several economic and social variables. But the major part of all these works is focused on the residential segregation of ethnic minorities within the particular context of North American cities. Sociologists and geographers have pointed very early that there is social segregation among European cities. But works from European economists, especially French economists, remain scarce. The main part of European literature is focused on occupational segregation and not on residential segregation ore moreover on the combination of these two approaches. This paper aims to introduce these issues. We present several stylised facts on urban segregation in Europe and in France before showing the interest to combine both a segregation framework and the issue of access to employment.