Brussels 09.10.2025 Immigration to France: What is its composition?
Seven of the top 10 nationalities receiving residence permits are African.
The other three are Turkey, China, and Afghanistan. These ten countries alone account for half of all residence permits issued in France.

Immigration en France : quelle composition ?

🔍 7 des 10 principales nationalités bénéficiaires des titres de séjour sont africaines.

Les 3 autres sont la Turquie, la Chine et l’Afghanistan.

➡️Ces dix pays comptent, à eux seuls, pour la moitié des titres de séjour en France. pic.twitter.com/34e0X8QlHL

— Observatoire de l'immigration et de la démographie (@ObservatoireID) October 7, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Africans constitute the largest immigrant group in France, with 3.5 million born in Africa residing there in 2023. This population is primarily composed of people from North Africa, especially Algeria, and increasingly from Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the integration of African immigrants and people of African descent in France is marked by socio-economic challenges, including poverty, and high unemployment.

🌍 La France accueille l'immigration la plus africaine d'Europe : 61% des immigrés de 15 à 64 ans sont originaires d'Afrique.

🇪🇺 Ce taux est 3 fois supérieur à la moyenne de l'UE. pic.twitter.com/90rJFrKhTq

— Observatoire de l'immigration et de la démographie (@ObservatoireID) July 20, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Six million foreigners live in France, representing 8.8% of the French population in 2024,
“a share lower than the European Union (EU) average,” according to an INSEE study published October 7, writes French newspaper Le Figaro. There are 6 million foreigners residing in France but not holding French nationality. A majority of them (5.1 million) were born abroad, and 900,000, mainly minors, were born in France.

Frontlines TPUSA is on the ground in Paris, France, covering the migrant crisis that has seen large swaths of African migrants make their way into France.

Local reporters state that around 400,000 to 500,000 migrants enter Paris both legally and illegally every single year.… pic.twitter.com/T6E9Ka2OUM

— FRONTLINES TPUSA (@FrontlinesTPUSA) September 24, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Their proportion (8.8%) of the population living in France is lower than the European average (9.6%). This proportion is also lower than that of Italy (8.9%), Spain (13.4%), Belgium (13.8%), and Germany (14.5%), explains INSEE, whose survey is based on data from the European Statistics Agency Eurostat. France also has fewer non-European foreigners: 2.3% of the population, compared to 2.4% in Italy, 5.3% in Germany, 8.4% in Belgium.

“The nationalities of foreigners living in France have diversified over time,” also notes the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. In 1968, nearly three out of four foreigners living in France held the nationality of a European country, and one in four held African nationality. By 2024, nearly half of foreigners living in France held the nationality of an African country, and one-third of a European country.

Среди иностранных граждан, проживавших во Франции в 2024 году, 46% имели гражданство африканских стран, 35% – европейских и 13% – азиатских. В другой классификации, разработанной специально для Франции, INSEE сосредоточился на иммигрантах, то есть людях, родившихся за рубежом. В 2024 году во Франции проживало 7,7 миллиона иммигрантов, из которых 2,6 миллиона получили французское гражданство.

С конца 2000-х годов ежегодное число европейцев, приобретающих французское гражданство, значительно сократилось. Эта доля выше среди выходцев из Африки (37%) и Азии (35%).