Gender and Migration: The Sexual Debut of Sub-Saharan African Migrants in France

For immigrants, arriving in France may represent a major break in their emotional and sexual lives. Many arrive as adults, but a non-negligible proportion migrate when they are younger and therefore become sexually active after migration. Sexuality issues are rarely broached in surveys of immigrants, except in relation to sexual health. Yet sexual behaviours, and notably the context of sexual debut, are powerful indicators of unequal gender relations. Élise MARSICANO, Nathalie LYDIÉ and Nathalie BAJOS analyse the characteristics of the sexual debuts of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, based on a survey carried out in open spaces in the Paris region. They look at the timing of sexual debut, the age gap between partners, and the degree of consent to first sexual intercourse, by time and place of intercourse, i.e. before or after migration, and by age at migration. The authors reveal the broad diversity of immigrant histories in this respect, and show that for those who arrived before age 10, the conditions of sexual debut are similar to those of the non-migrant population. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]