Une estimation des populations d’origine étrangère en France en 2011

Thanks to the introduction of new questions on the parents’ country of birth and nationality at birth in Insee big surveys, opportunities to estimate the foreign-origin population have greatly increased in the last decade in France. The 2011 Family Survey (Family and Housing Survey) of a big random sample provides such an opportunity for a new estimation by origin. In fact, two estimations have been carried out. : one on two generations (immigrants and immigrant children) and one on three generations (including immigrant grand-children) restricted to people under 60 for technical reasons. In 2011, 19.2 % of the total population of metropolitan France are of foreign origin on two generations. Under 60, this proportion is nearing 30 % if we include a third generation. Taking into account this generation brings historical depth. Grand children of European immigrants still largely prevail in this generation while Europeans became increasingly scarce among children of immigrant(s) and even more among immigrants. The population of African origin can be expected to grow if only because of demographic inertia not to mention future migratory flows. Comparisons with other European countries are not easy because of the discrepancy between European definitions of foreign origin. Thanks to the 2011 survey, it has been possible to bring the French definition into line with some other European definitions. So in 2011, in a Swedish definition, France is just 1.3 percentage point behind Sweden, a country that has probably the largest proportion of foreign-origin population on two generations in Europe (very little countries set aside)