ABSTRACT
By the turn of the 1970s, French and British migratory and integration policies had entered into a new phase. Both governments intended to reassert the role of the state in regaining control over their foreign-born population, either by way of statutory instruments or through secondary legislation/bilateral agreements imposing annual quotas. Three chief characteristics seem apt to illustrate either the divergence or the convergence of British and French immigration and integration policies. These are geopolitical factors linked to the gradual decline of both colonial empires; economic considerations in the context of post-war reconstruction; and demographic concerns, which were central in both countries, they sometimes gave rise to diverging interpretations. Northern Europeans were deemed preferable because they were thought to be easily assimilated: they could therefore meet both the French State’s demographic and economic requirements. France initially set up very formal and restrictive mechanisms for selecting immigrants, with a view to devising a long-term immigration policy articulated around economic and demographic needs.
