National Debates on Race Statistics: towards an International Comparison

The Collège d’études mondiales/FMSH and SIPA/Columbia University have opened up a process of reflection on the global issues and conflicts stemming from “diversity statistics” or “ethnic statistics.” A first workshop, organized in September 2011 in New York, brought together academics and experts from the US and France. This working paper offers three of the conference papers. Michel Wieviorka, asks : “Should France collect race statistics?”. Hervé Le Bras explores the contradiction between “Ethnic and racial statistics and the structure of the French nation-state: a contradiction”. Jean-Luc Racine writes about “The next step: a note on the issue of caste census in India”.