Survey: Two-thirds of French people say there are too many immigrants in France

Rate of
immigration

France has received about 200,000 immigrants annually since 2000. That represents one-third of 1

per cent of the French population, and makes France one of the most closed countries in the world. Within the OECD, the Paris-based club of developed nations, only Japan has a lower immigration rate.

Perception

According to a survey by the German Marshall Fund, the French believe immigrants comprise 25 per cent of the population. They are in fact 8.2 per cent.

Welfare recipients

In a poll by the conservative magazine Valeurs Actuelles last October, 67 per cent of respondents said "the government does more for immigrants than for the French". The OECD reports the average French household receives €10,129 annually in social payments, compared to €8,735 for the average immigrant family.

However, the picture changes dramatically if one considers only non-EU immigrants to France, who receive substantially more assistance than the French: 3.8 times more non EU-immigrants than French receive the RMI (“minimum revenue of insertion”) welfare payment; 2.5 times as many non-EU immigrants as French receive housing assistance; 1.6 times as many receive unemployment benefits; 1.4 times as many receive family aid.

Cost to French
taxpayers

National Front leader Marine Le Pen estimates immigrants cost France €70 billion annually. But she includes illegal immigrants and children born in France of immigrant parents (who are French), as well as the cost of development aid, prostitution, crime, etc.

Because immigrants produce and consume goods and services, most economists say immigration has a small but positive incidence on the host country economy, particularly if immigrants are young and highly qualified.

Among the 34 OECD members, the effect of immigration is positive: on average plus .35 per cent of GNP. The effect is negative, however, in France (minus .52 per cent of GNP) and Germany (minus 1.13 per cent of GNP) because French and German immigrants tend to be poorly qualified, poorly paid and older.

Origin

Most French immigrants come from former colonies. The largest percentage (42.8 per cent) are from Africa, including the Arab Maghreb: 13.2 per cent are Algerian; 12.2 per cent Moroccan; 4.4 per cent Tunisian. There are 37.4 per cent

from within the EU, including 10.7 per cent from Portugal, 5.5 per cent from Italy, 4.5 per cent from Spain and 2.8 per cent from Britain.

Asia is the third-largest source of French immigrants (14.4 per cent).

Legalisation

The Hollande administration legalised 46,000 illegal immigrants last year, a 55 per cent increase on the 30,000 legalised annually by earlier governments.

Geographical
distribution

Two-thirds of French immigrants live in cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants, compared to only 42 per cent of non-immigrants. The highest concentration is in the Paris Île-de-France region, where immigrants comprise between 22 and 30 per cent of the population.

The southeast and northeast have the second highest concentrations. Western France has the fewest immigrants.