France has always been a coun­try of immi­gra­tion. Between 1851 and 1911, the per­cen­tage of immi­grants rose from to 1% to 3% of French popu­la­tion. These immi­grants were mainly Belgian, Italian and Spanish. In the 20th cen­tury, the first impor­tant wave of immi­gra­tion took place bet­ween 1920 and 1930. So the per­cen­tage of immi­grants rose from 3 to 6,6% in 1931. In the 1930s, there was an impor­tant arri­val of Polish wor­kers (600 000) and Spanish people (500 000) after the defeat of the Spanish Revolution.

These num­bers can give the impres­sion that Muslims were not an impor­tant reli­gious mino­rity in France before the Second World War. But one must take into account the French Empire (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia but also Western and Central Africa). Until the inde­pen­dence, in 1962, Algeria was consi­de­red as a French depart­ment (i.e. a part of French ter­ri­tory and nation) ; but the Algerians were not French citi­zens so they were depri­ved of the right to vote.

They were called Muslims, but that word des­cri­bed them as an ethnic, not as a reli­gious group. This is why in Algeria you had the strange concept of « Christian Muslims ». The non-recog­ni­tion of Muslim reli­gion by the French state has the­re­fore a long his­tory. After the Second World War the per­cen­tage of immi­grants rose from 4,4% in 1945 to 6,6% in 1975. So it rea­ched more or less the level of the 1930s. This per­cen­tage has not chan­ged much in the last 30 years : today immi­grants repre­sent 7,4% of the French popu­la­tion.

To appre­ciate exactly how many forei­gners live in France, it is neces­sary to make a dis­tinc­tion bet­ween forei­gners and immi­grants. An immi­grant is some­body who was born abroad and came to France but may become French rather qui­ckly. A forei­gner is some­body who has a foreign pas­sport and the­re­fore is not a French citi­zen.

Immigrants regu­larly become French and their chil­dren are auto­ma­ti­cally « natu­ra­li­zed » if they are born in France. That’s why we can consi­der the ques­tion of immi­gra­tion from three dif­fe­rent points of views, which give way to 3 dif­fe­rent sta­tis­tics, which fit into eacho­ther like Russian pup­pets. In France there are : 3,6 mil­lion forei­gners, or 4,3 mil­lion immi­grants, or 6,1 mil­lion per­sons living in a family where either the father or the mother is a migrant.

The main « non European natio­na­li­ties » are roughly : Algerians : 600 000 - Moroccans : 600 000 - Tunisians : 200 000 - Turks : 200 000 - Africans : 150 000 (the African popu­la­tion has tri­pled bet­ween 1982 and 1990, and once more dou­bled since then).

The main "European" com­mu­ni­ties are : Portuguese : 600 000 Italians : 200 000 - Spanish : 200000.

In we take into account all the immi­grants the non Europeans repre­sent today 55 % and the Europeans 45 %. Since 1990 the non European migrants repre­sent the­re­fore a small majo­rity of the immi­grant popu­la­tion.

To these immi­grants one must add those who are French by birth but come from the French DOM-TOM : Guadeloupe, Martinique, Polynesia, New Caledonia. The 400 000 French West Indians repre­sent an impor­tant frac­tion of the poorly-qua­li­fied employees of the public sector (postal ser­vi­ces and hos­pi­tals). But none of them is consi­de­red as a migrant ! The per­cen­tage of women among immi­grants is much higher than before 1974 because the fron­tiers have been closed in July 1974 for « non Europeans » and only family immi­gra­tion and asylum see­kers are allo­wed to enter. This ele­ment can explain why the pro­blem of the hijab has taken more impor­tance recently, but that’s not the only reason and pro­ba­bly not the main one.

Important dis­cri­mi­na­tions

Immigrants coming from the « South » are vic­tims of all sorts of dis­cri­mi­na­tions as the sta­tis­tics show. They are mainly employed in the car indus­try, buil­ding indus­try, clea­ning sector and hos­pi­tals in lowly-paid jobs. 20% of the non-qua­li­fied wor­kers are forei­gners. 46 % of forei­gners are wor­kers (as oppo­sed to 26 % of French people). 80% of the Turks are wor­kers, 50% of the Algerians and Tunisians belong to the wor­king class.

These dis­cri­mi­na­tions had also affec­ted the pre­vious waves of immi­gra­tion but it did not give birth to a reli­gious move­ment of pro­test, because the majo­rity of the Italian, Polish and Spanish immi­grants were sha­ring the same reli­gion as the domi­nant one in France : catho­li­cism, but it pro­ba­bly not the case of the North Africans.

Part-time jobs and unem­ploy­ment 42% of migrant women have a part-time job as oppo­sed to 31% of French women. 20% of migrant men are unem­ployed as oppo­sed to 10% of French men. 23% of migrant women are unem­ployed as oppo­sed to 14% of French women.

Rate of unem­ploy­ment (year 2000) accor­ding to the natio­na­lity

Born in France : 11 % - Born abroad but natu­ra­li­zed : 14% - Algerians : 30,8% - Moroccans : 35,8% - Tunisians : 19,5% - Other Africans : 25,6% Mariages

40 % of the African migrants are Muslim. Polygamy is prac­ti­ced only among the Mandés who repre­sent 25 % of the African immi­grants. 50 % of the boys and 25 % of the girls born in Algeria but living in France marry with a French citi­zen whose two parents were born in France. Turkish men and women rarely marry French citi­zens, even they have been brought up in France