Colour-Blindness and the Failure of Anti-Discrimination Policies in Europe: The Case of France

In the 2000s, discrimination was high on the political agenda of most of the members of the European Union, but progresses have been relatively limited. The implementation of positive actions, conceived in the framework of ‘race-conscious’ policies, in countries which have chosen to favor a colour-blind approach has proved to be inefficient. Not only ‘race’ is disregarded as a valuable concept to address discrimination, but ethnic categories themselves are perceived as part of the problem rather than a solution. In this context, anti-discrimination policies tend to remain formal, failing to provide any concrete leverage for effective ethnic and racial equality policies. This presentation will address the dead-ends of ethno-racial anti-discrimination policies in colour-blind societies, first by providing a comparative discussion of a selection of EU countries (Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and France) and then by developing the French case studies, showing how the colour-blind framing plays against an effective anti-discrimination agenda.