Afro-French
Encyclopedia
Black people in France are French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 citizens or residents who are of Black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

 Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n or Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 ancestry.

Population statistics

Although it is illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and race, a law with its origins in the 1789 revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 and reaffirmed in the constitution of 1958, various population estimates exist. One source states that there are 1.5 million black people in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, while another states 1.865 million, equivalent to just under 4 per cent of the population. An article in the New York Times stated that estimates vary between 3 million and 5 million. It is estimated that four out of five black people in France are of African descent, with the remainder being of Caribbean ancestry or African Americans in France
African Americans in France
African Americans in France are a subgroup of the larger American population in France, it may include people of African American heritage or black people from the United States who are or have become residents or citizens of France as well as students and temporary workers...

.

Some organizations, such as the Representative Council of Black Associations , have argued in favour of the introduction of data collection on minority groups but this has been resisted by other organizations and ruling politicians, often on the grounds that collecting such statistics goes against France's secular principles and harks back to Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

-era identity documents. During the 2007 presidential election
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...

, however, Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....

 was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the collection of data on ethnicity. Part of a parliamentary bill which would have permitted the collection of data for the purpose of measuring discrimination was rejected by the Conseil Constitutionnel in November 2007.

See also

  • Cape Verdean French
    Cape Verdean French
    Cape Verdean French are French residents whose ancestry originated in Cape Verde.Cape Verdeans began arriving in France in 1964, from Rotterdam, Dakar, and Lisbon. They took jobs in the coals mines, in the iron foundries, and as masons. Women typically became domestics...

  • Haitians in France
    Haitians in France
    Haitians in France consist of migrants from Haiti and their descendants living and working in France.The waves of Haitian migration to France pre-date the Haitian, French and American Revolutions. Africans in Haiti have a tumultuous relationship with France regardless of whether or not they have...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK