The complex history of French immigration — seen in a police killing and retaliatory street violence

History of immigration in France

The reason for French society’s diversity can be traced back to the 19th century as the country took hundreds of foreign workers from other European nations such as Belgium, Poland, Italy, and Spain.

According to a report by Euro News, “Belgians were recruited to work in the textile industry, and Italians worked largely in vineyards. Spanish, Swiss and Polish immigrants were other big diasporas.”

Despite some tensions and incidents of violence resulting from heightened labour market competition, however, France continued to welcome immigrants. As per a report published by the Migration Policy Institute, a US-based think tank, between 1921 and 1931, France’s immigrant population increased from 1.4 million to 2.7 million.

Immigration post World War II included people from nations in Africa, including former colonies of France.

Laura Frader, a historian specialising in French social history, told Euro News: “After WWII, this attempt to open borders and welcome immigrants had several different roots — on the one hand, it was economically motivated… at the same time, after WWII there was this tremendous impulse to undo the damage of European fascism, and to re-articulate the rights of man and human rights… that was part of the whole impulse to welcome immigrants.”

This led to a wave of migration from countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. The think tank Migration Policy Institute noted that “newly independent former colonies in North Africa were another major source of immigration over the latter half of the 20th century, representing 26 per cent of the foreign-born population in France in 1975.”

Changes in French attitudes

France’s liberal policies on accepting immigrants started changing during the 1970s, particularly after the country was severely hit by the 1973 oil crisis. Experts say the economic downturn helped catapult far right forces such as Jean Marie Le Pen’s National Front (now RN) to the fore.

“The oil crisis put an enormous pressure on not just the French economy, but all European economies… unemployment spiked, because the price of oil just got so high, and from about 1973 on, French immigration policy began to shift and they began to impose more controls over immigrants because they couldn’t absorb all the workers that were attempting to come over.,” Frader told Euro News.

The main targets of the anti-immigrant policies were people of North African and non-European descent, who were either told to leave France or stopped from entering the country. As a result, after the 1980s, a huge dip was recorded in the legal immigration of non-Europeans to France. Immigration policies were further tightened in 1993, when the country introduced the ‘zero immigration’ policy, narrowing residency conditions for foreigners.

The current situation in France

According to the Migration Policy Institute’s report, Nicolas Sarkozy, first as interior minister and then as President between 2007 and 2012, shaped France’s current immigration system. He introduced the policy of “chosen” immigration rather than “imposed” immigration in a bid to “halt irregular migration and tighten the conditions for obtaining a ten-year residence permit”.

After Emmanuel Macron became President, the French government followed the policy of maintaining a balance between “humanity and firmness”. For instance, while it increased the chances of deporting rejected asylum seekers, it “facilitated the entry and stay of international students and highly qualified workers”, the report noted.

The Macron government introduced a new immigration bill on February 1, 2023, that sought to facilitate the regularisation process for undocumented workers while expanding the scope for deportation, especially for immigrants who committed crimes. The proposed law would fast-track the asylum process and set a minimum level of French for a multi-year residence permit, Le Monde said in a report.

Despite its seeming impartiality, the bill was widely condemned by both pro- and anti-immigration activists and experts. While the pro-immigration camp said it was too restrictive, those against immigration claimed it was too liberal. Huge protests in March pushed the bill to the back burner.

The key underlying issue

France’s immigration policy has fluctuated between guaranteeing the human rights of immigrants and pushing them to the margins of society — however, the country has largely failed to ensure the assimilation of its immigrant population, according to critics.

A 2016 study found that a large number of second-generation immigrants from Africa “felt the French often left them in no doubt as to their “otherness” status,” AFP reported.

The study also mentioned that “more frequent” racism and discrimination towards male migrants. Notably, the findings stood in contrast with the French claim of being “colour blind” — the country banned the collection of racial data in 1978 and is still not included in the census.

To many observers therefore, the mass street protests after the killing of Nahel came as no surprise. The Guardian noted that France had recorded 13 such shootings last year, three in 2021, and two in 2020. Most victims of such attacks since 2017 have been of either black or Arab origin, the report said.