ABSTRACT
Immigration is a fundamental feature of the formation of modern France. Of the major western countries only North America and Canada have experienced a more profound immigration than France. Three large waves of immigration have occurred over the last hundred years: the end of the nineteenth century saw an influx of Belgians and Italians, the 1920s saw the arrival of Poles, Czechs and Slavs, and the post-war period has seen an immigration from North and West Africa as well as a large Portuguese immigration in the 1960s. In the 1930s, the number of immigrants in France as a proportion of the total population was roughly the same as today-about 7.5 per cent of the total population. One in every four French nationals has a parent or grandparent who is/was not French.
