Abstract

PIP: Migrations in Africa have occurred since ancient times, but the 20th century migratory flows to Europe are a new phenomenon. After decolonization, the European economies needed cheap labor and African workers were attracted by the prospect of paying jobs. The 4 million foreigners in France comprise 7-8% of the population. Nearly 1/2 are of European origin, 1/3 are from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, and about 3.5%, or 150,000 persons, are from Africa south of the Sahara. The main African countries of origin are Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania. Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Togo, and Cameroon are less well represented. The migration to Europe began after World War II with small groups of Malians and Senegalese who had learned to speak French through their contact with French colonists and were readily assimilated into the labor force, mainly as skilled workers. Beginning in the late 1950s, their numbers increased rapidly. Accords signed by France, Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania in 1960 and 1963 to regularize their influx were ignored by employers needing labor and by Africans entering on tourist visas to seek work. By the early 1970s there were about 50,000 Africans in France, over 80% of them male. At about the same time immigration came to be regarded as a serious social and political problem, where before it had been little noticed. The number of immigrants had increased, especially in some neighborhoods of large cities, but not as much as generally believed. A larger proportion of families made the immigrants more visible on the streets and in the schools. The world economic recession caused the migrants to be regarded as competitors for the few jobs available. Cultural differences between the French and the immigrants increased. On the whole, North Africans are more numerous and visible, but Malians and Senegalese have become numerous enough in some Parisian neighborhoods to be perceived as a threat. Some journalists and politicians have fanned existing tensions for ideologic and electoral reasons. After 1973, France adopted an increasingly restrictive immigration policy. In 1981, 130,000 illegal immigrants were given legal status, and family regrouping was facilitated, but otherwise there has been a progressive hardening of immigration policy. An essential element of the situation is that most immigrants currently in France are there to stay. Temporary immigration has, for many of them, become permanent. Family groups are increasingly seen even among the Africans, whose situation is about as marginal as that of Portuguese or Spanish immigrants in the 1950s. A process of adaption to French society by the immigrants and to the immigrants by French society is already underway for Africans.