Les quartiers d'immigration : « ports de première entrée» ou espaces de sédentarisation ? L'exemple de Belleville

Immigration areas: areas of arrival or areas of settlement? the case of Belleville. Immigrant community structures have been mainly associated with the early phase of immigrant settlement. According to this model, such structures disappear in the course of the «acculturation» process. In this article, we argue that these structures exist during a different phase in immigrant settlement and that they are a response to needs that extend beyond the phase of pure «adaptation» to the host society. We attempt to support this argument through the analysis of residential stability of foreign immigrants, used as an indicator of a settling process.