which cities welcome the most immigrants in France?

Linternaute.com has analyzed the latest demographic data from INSEE to draw up an inventory of the cities with the most and the fewest immigrants.

The refugee crisis has raised the question of their reception in France for weeks. It also questions both the will and the capacity of cities to receive them in good conditions, some mayors believing that they cannot, materially and humanly, bring more “migrants” to their city. But which cities have the most immigrants to date in relation to their population? What are those which, on the contrary, may seem capable? Without providing a definitive answer to a debate which is far from being settled, and despite dated demographic data, INSEE statistics can nevertheless provide some answers. Linternaute.com analyzed 2012 data from the French Statistics Institute which has just been published.
Here is the number and percentage of immigrants in the 40 cities over 100 000 residents.

See the full list of cities with the most immigrants

The three cities of over 100 000 inhabitants with the most immigrants according to 2012 statistics are three cities in the Paris region : Saint-Denis, Argenteuil and Montreuil, with immigration mainly from Algeria, Morocco and other African countries, as well as Portugal (statistics from INSEE IMG1B). Mulhouse is the first provincial city with nearly 27,000 immigrants for 110,000 inhabitants. Algeria is the first country of origin once again but is followed this time by Turkey, with a very large Turkish community. The capital, Paris, arrives in 5th position with more than 455,000 registered immigrants. The strong immigration trends (of Maghreb, African or Portuguese origin) are once again confirmed, but the capital has at least as many immigrants from Europe as from Africa (Maghreb included).

The cities with the fewest immigrants are mainly western cities, but also the less populated cities of the category (those of less than 200,000 inhabitants): there are thus Brest, Caen, Le Mans or even Le Havre. In cities of more than 200,000 inhabitants, Nantes and Rennes are the cities which receive the fewest immigrants.

Immigration to cities of over 50,000 inhabitants

View the full list of cities where the most immigrants lives

When we enlarge the sample to cities over 50 000 inhabitants, the Paris region is suddenly over-represented with many suburban towns, where immigrants represent more or less a quarter of the population. Mulhouse remains the first land of immigration in the provinces, but falls in 16th place (outside Ile-de-France, only Vénissieux, in the Lyon suburbs, and Roubaix, in the Lille suburbs, are among the cities which account for more than 20% of ‘immigrants). The latest INSEE censuses indicate that around 40% of immigrants officially settled in France live in Île-de-France. According to the same statistics, a third of Ile-de-France residents are immigrants or born to immigrant parents. After this top 20 (presented on the left above), follow other cities more or less close to the capital and with more than 20% of immigrants in their population: Créteil, Noisy-le-Grand, Cergy, Champigny -on-Marne, Colombes, Asnières-sur-Seine.

The list of cities of 50 000 inhabitants with the fewest immigrants, on the other hand, is a big surprise. Excluding the overseas cities which record the lowest rates (especially in Reunion Island with a rate of 0.98% of immigrants in Saint-Louis or 1.97% in Saint-Pierre, a little over 4 % in Saint-Denis), Calais is the city which administratively has the fewest immigrants. And we can speak of irony here: while the northern city is plunged into the migrant crisis and sees thousands of people leaving for England parked each year, it officially only has 2.34% of immigrants. A figure which recalls a cruel reality: immigration also concerns a crowd of illegals and undocumented migrants living in France in very precarious conditions and who are not counted in the statistics.

The municipalities with the most immigrants (all municipalities combined)

See the full list of cities with the most immigrants

The municipalities which receive the most immigrants of all categories are generally small municipalities, bordering Switzerland or Belgium., or even very small towns where a couple of immigrants suffices to increase the percentage. Thus, in the first case, we find the municipality of Williers, 51 inhabitants nestled in the Ardennes, straddling the Belgian border, such as those of Thonne-la-Long, Velosne, Écouviez (Meuse) or even Gussignies (North ). On the Swiss side, Ferney-Voltaire and Saint-Genis-Pouilly are in the same situation. The town of Beausoleil (13,272 inhabitants in the Alpes-Maritimes) is also inhabited by many cross-border workers, but from Monaco and Monte-Carlo this time. In the second scenario (very few inhabitants), we find the municipality of Leménil-Mitry, located in Meurthe-et-Moselle, which has only three inhabitants according to INSEE and appears in third position in the table below. above.

The list of communities that receive the most immigrants also includes some special cases. The commune of Taizé, in Saône-et-Loire, is an exception, for example. This city is inhabited by 181 souls, most of which constitute a Christian community, made up of brothers from all over the world. The commune of Saint-Christol, in the Vaucluse, sees its population (1,357 inhabitants) strongly modified by the 2nd foreign mountain engineer regiment of the foreign legion, in other words by hundreds of foreign soldiers installed in its lands.

La Courneuve (39,859 inhabitants), Aubervilliers (77,032 inhabitants) and Clichy-sous-Bois (30,720 inhabitants) are the three largest cities in this top 20.

In this category, listing the municipalities which, on the other hand, have the fewest immigrants in their population does not make sense, as nearly 2,000 municipalities in total do not have any immigrants.

Definitions

According to INSEE, an immigrant is a person born abroad, whose nationality of origin is foreign, and who lives in France. Among immigrants are therefore counted foreigners (in other words people who reside in France, including students, but who do not have French nationality) and people who have acquired French nationality. INSEE also provides statistics entitled “IMG1B” on immigrants by sex, age and country of birth, in particular providing an overview of the countries of origin of immigrants, municipality by municipality.

France had a total of 5,703,121 immigrants in 2012. Among them, 3,980,635 foreigners.

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