Promoting ethnic diversity in workplaces: the limits of anti- discrimination “à la française”

This article analyzes the implementation of diversity policies in French firms within a traditionally colorblind institutional and cultural context. Using a mixed-method research design, I focus on the ways in which ethnoracial categories are referred to by actors involved in diversity policies. The empirical materials come from a specific diversity program conducted by a major organization between 2005 and 2011 and comprise elements on both persons involved in the implementation of the program and the recipients (young people who applied to the program). The analyses aim at investigating two main questions: (1) What are the categories of people targeted by diversity programs and how are they referred to in colorblind political and legal contexts? (2) How do potential recipients signal categories that make them eligible for the program? Findings highlight the limits of anti-discrimination policies in the French colorblind context.