Algerians in France (French: Algériens en France; Arabic: جزائريون في فرنسا) are people of Algerian descent or nationality living in France. People of Algerian origin account for a large sector of the total population in France, and are the largest single represented foreign nationality in France. Some immigrated during colonial rule in Algeria starting in the 1920s, and large numbers chose to emigrate to France from the 1960s onwards.
History In spite of France's colonial rule in Algeria, many Algerians chose to immigrate to France from the 1960s to the present due to political turmoil. Tensions between the countries endure today. A recent attempt to "improve" the situation was the banning the Muslim women from being free to wear the religious attires Burqa and the Hijab in schools by Jacques Chirac. Nicolas Sarkozy furthered his support of the outlawing of conspicuous religious symbols by ridiculing the burqas as a "sign of subservience of women".
Pre-immigration culture The colonization of Algeria by Charles X greatly affected the culture of Algeria. A new ideal of individual land ownership and the exclusion of tribal practices from the work sector threatened the Algerian way of life; many revolutionaries rose up against the exploitation though Algeria was not independent until 1962.Creamean, Letitia "Membership of foreigners: Algerians in France". 1996 Arab Studies Quarterly 18(1). Two famous academics visited and studied tribal groups in Algeria—Pierre Bourdieu, a theorist in sociology who studied the pseudo-colonized French Algeria and Melville Hilton-Simpson an anthropologist who studied the Shawía in the mountains of Algeria. Bourdieu extensively researched the destruction of Algerian culture under French rule; Algerians were forced into cities to support the economic interests of the French and destroying their old tribal living and working situations.Bourdieu, Pierre. 2008 Political Interventions: Social Science and Political Action. Gregory Elliot trans. London: Verso Press Though some definitely benefitted from the industrialization of the country, many suffered through unemployment and poverty, inciting violent revolutions and wars throughout the 20th century. In his article "Culture, Violence and Art", Hassen Bouabdellah cites Algeria as the prime example of the violence that erupts after a peoples have had their culture forcibly stripped away. Though France had once enslaved them, Algerian citizens chose to migrate to France because they were still very dependent upon France for trade and many people already knew the language.Bouabdellah Hassen "Culture Violence and Art". pg 2
Religion The vast majority of the population in Algeria practices Islam with increasing numbers of Evangelists. Jews who left Algeria following Independence in 1962 also constitute a large number of Algerian migrants to France.
Workplace In industrialized cities of Algeria, men and women worked in harsh conditions and for little pay to maximize the profit of colonial rulers. Though most immigrants to France came from urban areas in Algeria, many of those people were pulled away from their original communities in more remote parts of Algeria. In the rural areas where surviving tribes lived, the traditional roles of males and females were quite different from those in the cities. Females were assigned to the informal work tasks of childcare and cooking as Hilton-Simpson noted when the village women prepared his meal.Hilton-Simpson, Melville Among the Hill-folk of Algeria. 1921, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. The women made "simple" meals in their homes which are built on the sides of cliffs while males were in charge of specialized tasks, like medicine. Hilton-Simpson found interesting medical practices among the tribes that survived the French colonized Algeria. Among the Shawía, men were typically those who could train to be a healer. Hilton Simpson observed that the doctors of the tribe performed more advanced medical procedures such as surgeries in addition to herbal remedies and some more supernatural practices. However, the surgeries could not be closely studied because French colonialists banned the practice in the 1800s. Bans ultimately resulted in medicine becoming a very secretive ritual.
Marital Practices The legal age for marriage is eighteen for women, twenty-one for men. Many Algerian women are getting married and starting families at much older ages than they did under French Rule. Education, work commitment, and changing social attitudes are the reasons for the change.
In 2010, the total fertility rate was 1.76 children born/woman. This is a drop from 2.41 in 2009 and 7.12 in the 1970s just after the Algerian War of Independence from France
Civil War Shortly after gaining independence from France, Algeria began to experience serious political turmoil, eventually leading to the civil war of the 1990s that caused many Algerians to leave the country. On 4 January 1992, the military took over the Algerian government, putting Mohammed Boudiaf in place shortly afterward. On 29 June 1992, Mohammed Boudiaf was assassinated by a bodyguard with supposed Islamist ties—this incited much more violence and the formation of the Armed Islamic Group.BBC News "Timeline: Algeria" October 21, 2009. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14118856 Many changes in power occur and violence from many groups, especially the Armed Islamic Group and the Berbers, continues today. The power struggle between these two groups is the root of the upheaval in Algeria that caused these women immigrants to give up their old way of life in search of a better one in France.
Emigration to France The impact that the Arabs left on Algerian culture was large and has not yet left the minds of the people. Islam gave hope to many poorer women in the countryside, leaving a deep-seated belief in Islam that was carried to France. It is mainly this clash of religious values, rituals and even rumors that has caused a cultural conflict in France."Quelsques Observations Sur la Psychologie en Algerie" International Journal of Psychology
The migratory movement of Maghrebis into France is generally attributed to push factors. There was little opportunity to move freely throughout society in Algeria, so many were motivated to migrate to France for a better life. The presence of a post-colonial economic opportunity gap when Algeria was freed after the Algerian War also contributed to the increase of Algerian immigrants. Additionally, some Maghrebis migrated to France because they would have more political freedom to protest French suppression in Algeria than they would in their home country.
History of the emigration to France The migration of Algerians to France happened in multiple waves: from 1913–1921, from 1922–1939, and from 1940–1954. During the years of 1947–1953, specifically, France saw a large influx of Maghrebi immigrants. Legal Algerian immigrants numbered 740,000 between these years.
In the 1950s, the French government began encouraging Algerian migration, as a result of pressure from businesses. This pressure was partly caused by the lack of workers in post-WWII France . In December 1958, they instituted the Social Action Fund, which supported African immigrants by allocating 500 million Francs towards Maghrebi immigrant shelters and housing. However, the situation these immigrants were in was still unpleasant as a result of their employers, who took them as indentured servants. Thus, they were paid low wages and given little government aid compared to other workers. Ultimately, many of them were deported back to Africa. However, by the late 1950s, France's intake of Algerian migrants began to outnumber those being deported, resulting in a sharp uptick in the French Algerian population.
In the 1960s, Algerians continued to attempt to immigrate to France. Many of these people obtained three month work visas, reflecting their intent to work in France for a short time period before returning home. However, the French government viewed this is as a hostile move, assuming that these immigrants intended to stay in the country permanently. Thus, the government continued to regularly deport Algerians. They were required to have a French address to remain in the country, which most Algerian immigrants did have. However, officials simply didn't believe the authenticity of their identification and paperwork; thus, in the 1960s, the French government deported 5–8% of African immigrants. By 1968, there were 40,000 Africans in France.
Effects of the emigration to France
Franco-Algerian culture First generation Algerian immigrants generally moved to France to make a better life for themselves and for their families if they had the proper resources. Médine, a Franco-Algerian rapper, wrote an article detailing his experience and that of his parents as Algerian immigrants. Médine's parents spent most of their time in France working to be completely assimilated into French culture. If they were identified as immigrants, they were berated with racist remarks, and were subjected to repeated identification checks by police.Médine 2005 "How Much More French Can I Be?". Time 166(20). Many journalists and researchers have reported a strong sense of "homogenous national French identity" that many citizens are afraid will disappear with the influx of immigrants from Algeria and other North African countries; there have also been numerous terrorist attacks in France that have inspired a sense of fear towards Islam.Geesy, Patricia "North African Immigrants in France: Integration and Change" 1995 Substance 77(76) p138.
The bigotry from French natives and alleged decreased rights under Islamic tradition were the least of poorer women's worries. These women both receive pressure to assimilate as well as endure increasing misogynist violence in the projects of France according to Fadéla Amara, a civil rights activistCrumley, Bruce "Acting on the Outrage". 2004 Time Europe October 11 France created a welfare program that targeted women and children who recently emigrated to France; the target of this program was to help women get on their feet so that they would embrace French culture instead of calling for Algerian independence.Lyons, Amelia H. "The Civilizing Mission in the Metropole" Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 32(4) 489-516 These services gave women the chance to move out of bidonvilles, or shantytowns on the outskirts of the city; however, this was at the expense of giving up their cultural identity for a more Western life which to some was too great of a price.
Religion According to a 2023 report, the 2020 INED-INSEE surveys have stated, 91 percent of those who grew up in Muslim families claim the religion of their parents. According to the national survey of 2020 holden by the INSEE, 64% of the French of Algerian origin who were surveyed adhered to Islam; at the same time, 4% of the French of Algerian origin adhered to Christianity, of whom 3% were Catholics and 1% other Christians (without further specification). Website (archive) 32% of the French of Algerian origin declared that they had no religion. According to the same survey 89% of Algerian-born people in France adhered to Islam.