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Diversification of recruitment is the managerial response to the strengthening of anti-discrimination legislation. It places recruiters in the paradoxical situation of having to both value and ignore “differences.” How can they do this without positive discrimination? To answer this question, the article shows that recruitment cannot be reduced to a commodity exchange based on “competence conventions” but also fits into the rationales of differential mobilization of social groups. Diversity leads to the promotion of the presence, within the business, of discriminated groups on the basis of “use conventions,” differentiated according to the presumption of competence attached to the source of their disrepute. The example of the catering industry allows us to show the conditions of implementation of these policies in a sector under pressure. Although “diversity” legitimizes the principle of differentiation in wage requirements on the basis of the extra-occupational characteristics of individuals, it leads more to the replenishment of a reserve army of labour than to curbing the practices in use.