Immigration to France
According to the French National Institute of Statistics INSEE, the 2021 census counted nearly 7 million immigrants (foreign-born people) in France, representing 10.3% of the total population.
This is a decrease from INSEE statistics in 2018 in which there were 9 million immigrants (foreign-born people) in France, which at the time represented 14% of the country's total population.
[6] In 2014, the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE) published a study reporting that the number of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian immigrants in France between 2009 and 2012 has doubled.
[7][8] Of the total of 229,000 new foreigners coming to France in 2012, nearly 8% were Portuguese, British 5%, Spanish 5%, Italians 4%, Germans 4%, Romanians 3%, and Belgians 3%.
The pace of industrial growth attracted millions of European immigrants over the next century, with especially large numbers arriving from Poland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Spain.
[10] In the wake of the First World War, in which France suffered six million casualties, significant numbers of workers from French colonies came.
During the period of reconstruction, France lacked labor, and as a result, the French government was eager to recruit immigrants coming from all over Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.
Although many initially returned to the country after a few years, as the Vietnam War situation worsened, a majority decided to remain in France and brought their families over as well.
It resulted in hundreds of thousands of Muslims, especially to the larger cities, living in subsidized public housing and suffering from very high unemployment rates.
[27][26] By 2022, the total number of new foreigners coming to France rose above 320,000 for the first time, with a significant increase in students, family reunification and labor migration from African and Asian countries happening under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron.
[28] In 2014, the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE, for its acronym in French) published a study on Thursday, according to which has doubled the number of Italian, Portuguese and Spanish immigrants in France between 2009 and 2012.
Many famous French people like Edith Piaf,[30] Isabelle Adjani, Arnaud Montebourg, Alain Bashung, Dany Boon, Zinedine Zidane, Karim Benzema, and Kylian Mbappé have Maghrebi ancestry.
According to other sources between 5 and 6 million people of Maghrebi origin live in France corresponding to about 7-9% of the total French metropolitan population.
Banlieues are lower-income suburban areas of France, historically known as "religious ghettos" occupied by African and Islamic immigrants.
Formerly a landfill, migrants and asylum were able to replicate an urban style of living with the establishment of stores, restaurants, schools and places of worship, while they waited for the government to determine their fate.
The Calais Jungle received support from NGOs and grassroot organizations even after the French government dismantled the area in 2016.
Just like the banlieues in France, the living conditions of the Calais Jungle are hazardous and unkept with high levels of state authority violence.
People living in these areas with high migrant populations reported insufficient food, water and healthcare.
[38] The large population of Islamic and African immigrants in banlieus has allowed for different marginalized groups to thrive independently but can institute poverty traps - making it difficult for them to be fully integrated.
The most common countries of birth for these immigrants are Madagascar, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, DRC, Mali, Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Comoros and Guinea.
Citizens of the United States of America total more than 100,000[41] permanent residents in France, Canadians 11,931,[42] followed by Latin Americans are a growing sub-group the most numerous are the Brazilians 44,622,[43] followed by Venezuelans 30,000,[44] Peruvians 22,002,[45] Chileans (esp.
[47] Latin Americans are increasingly emigrating to France for economic reasons, study, work, family, and sometimes political asylum.
In 2006, the French Ministry of the Interior estimated clandestine immigrants ("sans-papiers") in his country numbered anywhere between 200,000 and 400,000, also expecting between 80,000 and 100,000 people to enter France illegally each year.
[49] The initialism 'OQTF', from the 2006 law obligation de quitter le territoire français, is sometimes used for a person who is required to leave France.
[54][55][56] As of 2016, many undocumented immigrants tried to jump the fences at Calais and board a train or truck heading for the United Kingdom.
[7] In 2008, according to The National Institute of Statistics (INSEE), there were 12 million immigrants and their direct descendants (2nd generation) making up about 20% of the population.
Ile-de-France has the highest proportion of total young people with foreign origins, including Europe and non-European, at about 37%.
[74][75] People under 18 of Maghrebi, Sub-saharian and Turkish origin became a majority in several cities of Ile-de-France (Clichy-sous-Bois, Mantes-la-Jolie, Grigny, Saint-Denis, Les Mureaux, Saint-Ouen, Sarcelles, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Garges-lès-Gonesse, Montfermeil, La Courneuve, Sevran, Aubervilliers, Argenteuil, Évry, Stains, Gennevilliers et Épinay-sur-Seine).
Youth of non-european origin became a majority in a few areas outside the Ile-de-France also, in particular in Vaulx-en-Velin close to Lyon, as well as Vénissieux, Rillieux-la-Pape and Wazemmes in Lille, in Grand Parc in Bordeaux, and in several arrondissements of Marseilles.
[78] Aoki and Yasuyuki's research show that data that is frequently shown regarding French immigration and crime is misleading, as it does not take discrimination and economic hardships into account as a motivator for criminal acts.
