Recent immigrants to France - Increasingly European immigration

Between 2004 and 2012, an average of 200,000 immigrants arrived on French territory each year. When deaths and departures are subtracted, the immigrant population grew by an average of 90,000 a year. At the start of 2013 it stood at 8.8% of the French population. Between 2004 and 2009 arrivals in France remained stable, then rose between 2009 and 2012, mainly due to the influx of Europeans. The profile of immigrants entering France each year has changed over the last decade. The share of women has continued to rise, in line with a trend that started in the mid-1970s. The proportion of people of European origin has grown: almost half of all immigrants entering France in 2012 were born in Europe, against one-third ten years previously. European-origin immigrants are mainly Portuguese, British, Spanish, Italian and German. Since 2008, the share of immigrants who state that they have a job in the year of their arrival in France has been stable despite the rise in qualification levels. However, there are sharp variations according to the country of origin. Six new immigrants out of ten live with their family in the year of their arrival in France, whether they immigrated together or joined family members who had already settled in France.