ABSTRACT
France has been a country of immigration since the second half of the nineteenth century, although it had no official immigration policy until 1945. The question of immigration has usually been brought to public attention and to political debate in times of unemployment and general destabilisation of wage conditions, and in times of urban crisis. The countries whose workers emigrated to France tried to control the workforce and to reap financial benefits from it. The recession in the 1930s represents a turning point in French immigration policy. The industrial sector in France needed personnel and demanded that it be allowed to employ more foreign workers. After the Second World War, France had to be rebuilt. The country was suffering from a labour shortage, and at the same time the birth rate was low. The education of immigrant children in France is a political question with regard to ‘the cultures of origin’.
