The Role of Administrative Assistance in Labor Outcomes for Roma Informal Settlement Residents: Results from the MOUS Program in Grenoble, France

Abstract:

In 2012, the metropole of Grenoble, along with the local Centre Communale d’Action Social (CCAS), commissioned an administrative assistance program called Maîtrise d’Oeuvre Urbaine et Sociale (MOUS) which specializes in the labor and social integration of Roma informal settlement residents. Emphasizing attainment of temporary housing and social accompaniment, the MOUS program Avenirs Emploi utilizes a candidature process based on an assessment across “integration criteria.” Since its inception, the MOUS program has assessed 167 applications and accepted seventy individuals with an acceptance rate of 42 percent. Panel data of 714 observations spanning seven lag-years, application assessment data, and difference-in-differences regressions were used to assess causal effects of the MOUS program on labor outcomes. This thesis finds that conceptions of “motivation” by the MOUS program rest primarily on French language ability, which interacts with other integration criteria in an additive—not multiplicative—way in acceptance decisions. The MOUS program exists in a network of other administrative assistance programs that work through a similar "accompaniment" mechanism. Those accepted into the MOUS program are more likely to obtain job contracts, participate in job-specific training programs, and be enrolled in French language workshops primarily provided by administrative assistance programs outside the MOUS in the post-acceptance period. Participation in the MOUS program increases both utilization of administrative assistance programs outside the MOUS and utilization density of these programs. This study finds that the MOUS program may help beneficiaries develop accompaniment-specific skills that make participation in outside administrative assistance programs more effective.