Poverty in France

The Poverty , i.e. the fact of not having sufficient material resources to live decently, is in France a reality, visible for example by the presence of Without fixed residence (SDF), and a fear sometimes mythifiée within the population.

Contrary to the generally accepted ideas, the incidence of poverty of the whole of the households has strongly dropped for 30 years, at the same time in absolute measurement (compared to a constant level of expenditure) and in relative measurement (compared to the remainder of the population), in particular because of many the social securities created then gradually raised (RMI, Aides with housing,…).

Poverty in the developed Countries (from which France), is radically different from the poverty of the Developing country, where it can be characterized by true difficulties of survival from day to day.

History

Measure poverty in France

The measurement of poverty in France is made mainly by means of relative poverty lines, i.e. by comparing the income of the poor with the income of the other members of the company. The relative poverty line is defined by INSEE as being equal to 50% of the median income . A poverty line relative to 60% of the median income is also measured (and used for European comparisons by Eurostat).

Relative poverty also dropped between 1970 and 2001: the relative poverty , defined by a Poverty line equal to 50% of the median income of the population, passed from 15% to 6% of the households.

In the same way, poverty relative to 60% passed from 13.5% in 1996 to 12.1% in 2005. The Revenu from solidarity activates (RSA), in experimentation since September 2007, is one of the tracks considered.

According to the National observatory of poverty and social exclusion, the poor people were before especially the pensioners. The tendency was reversed in the Années 1980 with the increase in youth unemployment; whereas the incidence of poverty of the elderly decreased by 85%, that of the credits increased by 38% in thirty years. The various social security benefits have an significant impact in the households with modest income and in 2002, they can in certain cases represent more than 50% of the incomes. “The improvement of the job market contributes to reduce monetary poverty appreciably, its impact is reflected tardily on the populations furthest away from the job market”

Current location

In France, in 2005, the relative poverty line varies according to the type of Ménage; for a person alone, it is of 681 euros (threshold with 50 %) or of 817 euros (threshold with 60%). For a couple with two children of more than 14 years, the threshold (as summons incomes of the couple) is of 1703 euros (threshold 50%) or of 2043 euros (threshold 60%).

7,13 million people (12.1% of the population) lived under the poverty line of 60%, including 3,73 million people (6.6% of the population) in lower part of the relative poverty line of 50% in 2005.

More particularly:

: 900000 children of less than 16 years (8%) live under the relative poverty line in 2000, rate higher than that of the population (6.5%);
42 000 children are reached of Saturnisme, sign of a housing vétuste : paintings with the Plomb are prohibited to the workmen house painters since 1915, with all the professionals since 1948 and completely since 1993. The risk to be today exposed with lead is four times more important for buildings built before 1915 than by a building builds between 1915 and 1948 (source : French senate);
500 000 residences are unhealthy;
200 000 students in difficult financial position, which leads young women to finance their studies by selling their " services" , for example by the means of advertisements on Internet. This phenomenon is in this country in increase (the trade union Student CUS advances the figure of 40 000).

However, the catch in social contribution makes it possible France to have one of low infantile death rate in the world in spite of this poverty.

According to OECD, poverty is concentrated geographically in certain zones, and the people living in these zones do not have access to the social networks which could facilitate their economic insertion. This problem is all the more complex as the population of immigrant origin is surreprésentée in these zones. “The people who succeed and those which have the possibility of it avoid living there. ”. In addition, housing is in the middle of the problem; the rent control (provisions which makes difficult the cancellation of a lease for nonpayment of the rent in particular) decreases the offer of residences deprived for the tenants with low income, and raises the prices.

It appears that, more and more, the countryside becomes a tank of misfits and that thus, a considerable fringe of the precarized urban populations joined the rows of the small farmers in the rows of the recipients " ruraux" RMI. This phenomenon is explained, partly, by the least rural high cost of living compared with the cost of living in urban site.

In 2005, perdurent microphone Bidonville S clandestine, populated inter alia Rroms.

Homeless person

The number of Sans-abri in France is difficult to evaluate, partly because of the absence of adapted statistical tools, like by the character Nomade of this Population. The Housing shortage is one of the main causes explaining the absence of access to a roof.

A counting carried out one night of January 2004 by INSEE counted: 86000 SDF in France, are 0,13% of the population. According to the ethnologist-psychoanalyst Patrick Declerck (2002), there is with Paris an hard core of: 10000 with: 15000 people who usually live and in a continuous way in the street (strongly desocialized tramps). Beyond this stable population, one finds a group more unstable or less durable and twice larger (: 20000 with: 30000). On the whole, 100 000 people would live thus in France.

The collective Deaths in the Street, created in 2002, entered 145 deaths of Sans-abri of November 2006 in March 2007, including 91 in Ile-de-France. The average lifespan of these 145 dead was 49 years (against a national average 80 year old). The collective had counted 122 “died in the street” of November 2005 in March 2006. On these 122 deaths in 2005-2006, only five of them were ascribable cold (Hypothermie). The leading causes of death are indeed the Malnutrition, while the lack of medical monitoring prevents the prevention of diseases treated well like the diabetes or the Hypertension. To this a strong consumption of alcohol is added and of tobacco, involving diseases Cardiovasculaire S, Cancer S ORL and Cirrhose S. the creation of CMU by the Gouvernement Jospin aimed inter alia improving medical monitoring of these patients, in order to treat pathologies as of their appearance, with lower costs, rather than when they become too serious.

In France in November 2006, whereas the Direction of research, studies, evaluation and statistics (DREES) announces nearly 7% of delay of payment of rents by the tenants in 2002 (often because of the costs of the electric heating), the government announces the creation of: 100000 places in lodging houses for the homeless people under the “Plane winter” (from November 1st, 2006 to March 31st, 2007). Number of Without-papers and invisible escape the statistics (but they were approximately 200 to express in Calais a few front days.)

The homeless people are not necessarily unemployed, some work (sometimes even for the Mairie of Paris). According to the study of INSEE of 2004.

The visibility of poverty varies according to the media exposure. According to INSEE, “the visibility of poverty was particularly strong in France in 1993. The debate on poverty was intense there. The Abbot Pierre, figure charismatic of the fight against poverty in the years 1950, was again strongly publicly committed in the collective reflection on the means of making move back the misery and the exclusion of housing in particular. The gifts in favor of charity associations reached tops during this year and of those which followed. Also let us note that 1993 are also the year when Pierre Bourdieu and its team published the misery of the world which was a considerable success. Lastly, the thorough analysis of the articles on poverty appeared in the press shows a strong increase during this period”.

Poverty in France

History

Measure poverty in France

Current location

Homeless person

Social security