Key Data on Migrant Presence and Integration in Paris
Paris is the capital and most populated city in France with 2 220 445 inhabitants. It is located within the region of Île-de-France which gathers 12 246 200 million people. There are 20 municipal districts in Paris called arrondissements which represent the smallest administrative unit.
Note: Territorial Level 2 (TL2) consists of the OECD classification of regions within each member country. There are 335 regions classified at this level across 35-member countries. Territorial Level 3 (TL3) consists of the lower level of classification and is composed of 1681 small regions. In most cases, they correspond to administrative regions.
Source: OECD (2018), OECD Regional Statistics (database), https://doi.org/10.1787/region-data-en.
This section presents key definitions and a selection of indicators about migrant presence and integration in Paris.
The term “migrant” generally functions as an umbrella term used to describe people that move to another country with the intention of staying for a significant period of time. According to the United Nations (UN), a long-term migrant is “a person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year (12 months)” (UNSD, 2017). Yet, not all migrants move for the same reasons, have the same needs or are subject to the same laws.
This report considers migrants a large group that includes:
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Persons who have emigrated to an EU country from another EU country (“EU migrants”),
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Persons who have come to an EU country from a non-EU country (‘non-EU born or third-country national’),
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Native-born children of immigrants (often referred to as the “second generation”) and
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Persons who have fled their country of origin and are seeking/ have obtained international protection.
For the latter, some distinctions are needed. While asylum seekers and refugees are often counted as a subset of migrants and included in official estimates of migrant stocks and flows, this is not correct according to the UN’s definition that indicates that “migrant” does not refer to refugees, displaced, or others forced or compelled to leave their homes:
“The term migrant in Article 1.1 (a) should be understood as covering all cases where the decision to migrate is taken freely by the individual concerned, for reasons of personal convenience and without the intervention of an external compelling factor” (IOM Constitution Article 1.1 (a)).
According to recent OECD work the term migrant is a generic term for anyone moving to another country with the intention of staying for a certain period of time – not, in other words, tourists or business visitors. It includes both permanent and temporary migrants with a valid residence permit or visa, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants who do not belong to any of the three groups (OECD, 2016b).
Thus, in this report the following terms are used:
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“Status holder” or “refugee” who have successfully applied for asylum and have been granted some sort of protection in their host country, including those who are recognised on the basis of the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, but also those benefiting from national asylum laws or EU legislation (Directive 2011/95/EU), such as the subsidiary protection status. This corresponds to the category ’humanitarian migrants’ meaning recipients of protection – be it refugee status, subsidiarity or temporary protection – as used in recent OECD work (OECD, 2016b).
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“Asylum seeker” for those individuals who have submitted a claim for international protection but are awaiting the final decision.
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“Rejected asylum seeker” for those individuals who have been denied protection status.
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“Undocumented or irregular migrants” for those who do not have a legal permission to stay.
This report systematically distinguishes which group is targeted by policies and services put in place by the city. Where statistics provided by the cities included refugees in the migrant stocks and flows, it will be indicated accordingly.
Statistics in France are based on country of birth and nationality. Three categories are tracked by the French National Institute of Statistics (INSEE) following the recommendations of the High Council for Integration (Haut conseil à l’intégration) and here detailed:
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1. Migrant population (immigrés) according to the definition adopted by the High Council for Integration, are people born outside of France (i.e. foreign-born) and living in France thus referring to country of birth and nationality of birth. The migrant category is permanent and a person continues to be considered migrant even after becoming French by acquisition. This category does not include (1) people born in France of foreign nationality (mostly minors which will acquire the nationality when turning 18), or (2) people born abroad with French nationality at birth (which is a bigger group mostly from the Maghreb). This definition is linked to the French colonial past and France’s history of settlement colonies with citizenship right. Recent OECD research makes this category the same as “foreign born” for international comparison purposes (OECD, 2017a). The migrant category is not considered in legislation like in other countries, but has been used for statistical records since 1999. At the local level (département), data for the immigré category exists uniquely on housing and unemployment.
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2. Most of the data at the local level collected in France is based on nationality and refers to the “foreign” population (population étrangère) which are people legally living in France but without French nationality (i.e. either having exclusively another nationality or being state-less). Foreign individuals are not always migrants as they might have been born in France from foreign parents. The Foreign category is not life-lasting since foreign persons can become French by acquisition of the nationality. This is the determinant category considered by the French legislation, state services and statistical monitoring.
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3. The term “migrant descendent” refers to the population that was born and living in France but with at least one migrant parent (i.e. second generation).
Notes:
INSEE definition of “Immigrant” in France: https://www.insee.fr/fr/metadonnees/definition/c1198.
INSEE definition of “Foreign” in France: https://www.insee.fr/fr/metadonnees/definition/c1328.
Source: Author’s elaboration.
Key statistics
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Country subnational government expenditure as a percentage of GDP: 11.4% (2015).
Subnational spending accounts for 20.1% of public expenditure (2015); The OECD average is 40%.
Source: OECD, Ssubnational government and finance (database).
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Total population: Paris is the capital of France and its most populated city with a municipal population of 2 220 445 inhabitants. It has a relative small surface of 105 square km and it is composed by 20 districts called arrondissements. The City of Paris corresponds also to the Département of Paris (see Figure 2.1).
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Ile-de-France Region (TL2) 12 246 200 inhabitants in 2014.It is home to 18.1% of the French population.
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The Greater Paris – Métropole du Grand Paris- is composed by the City of Paris and other 130 municipalities (7 020 010 inhabitants in 2015). It includes the municipalities of the Petite Couronne (close ring) and the three corresponding départements - Les Hauts-de-Seine (92), la Seine-Saint-Denis (93) et le Val-de-Marne (94)- and seven municipalities of the Grand Couronne (enlarged ring).
Population trends in Paris
Foreign individuals account for 15% of the population in the city of Paris and immigrants account for 20.4%.
The most important countries of origin
Paris is a highly diverse city with more than 150 nationalities represented. Among them, the biggest nationalities in Paris are:
The municipality has indicated that in the past two years, migrants arriving in Paris are mainly coming from Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali as well as Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine.
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Unaccompanied minors: 1 500 in 2017 according to the municipality
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Asylum seekers in the accommodation system in Paris: 3 907 asylum seekers staying in the Paris accommodation system for asylum seekers (CADA, HUDA, AT-SA) in 2017.
Employment outcomes
The main industrial sectors where migrant work:
Education
Income
In Paris, the median disposable income by household is EUR 26 194.7; 16.1% of the overall population is below the poverty rate (Insee, 2015).
Right to vote in Paris
Right to vote or be eligible to national elections is not extended to foreigners in France. European Union nationals living in France can vote and are eligible in European elections (since 1999) and municipal elections (since 2001). This is not the case for non-EU citizens. This is different from some neighbouring European Union countries (e.g. Sweden, Denmark, Belgium or the Netherlands) where non-EU foreigners who have lived continuously in the national territory for a certain number of years can vote for municipal elections; other countries allow foreigners to vote only if there is a reciprocity agreement between the two relevant countries (e.g. Spain and Portugal) when length of stay requirements are met.