Multicultural Paris

Here is an interesting discussion that took place in the French forum. I thought I would put it here for those who can't read French.

Paris is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, and Greater Paris is home to the largest population of immigrants in Europe. As some of you already know, French censuses do not ask questions regarding ethnicity. They do, however, ask people to report their birthplace, so with this we can get an idea of the ethnic diversity and the size of the foreign-born communities in Paris.

At the 1999 census, there were 2,159,070 people in Greater Paris who were born outside of Metropolitan France. This is the largest such population in Europe. In Greater London, for example, at the 2001 census there were only 1,940,390 people who were born outside of the (metropolitan) UK.

According to the 1999 census, the 10 largest foreign and overseas-born communities in Greater Paris were as listed below. Please note that some categories of immigrants may be under-reported. This is particularly true for people born in Mainland China, who have flocked to Paris since the mid-90s and who seem to be underestimated in the 1999 census. The 1999 census reported only 25,500 people in Greater Paris who were born in Mainland China, but NGOs estimate that there are actually between 250,000 and 400,000 ethnic Chinese people living in Greater Paris, approximately 200,000 of whom were born in Mainland China. Even assuming that a lot of them arrived between 1999 and 2006, that's still a great underestimation on the part of the census authorities. They've promised the new census campaign which started in 2004 would be more accurate (the new census is now spread over several years so that census agents can count people more efficiently and conduct detailed investigation in immigrant neighborhoods).

With this caveat, here is a list of the 10 largest foreign and overseas-born communities in Greater Paris at the 1999 census:
1- born in Algeria: 340,273 (126,373 are Jewish (mostly) and Christian (a little) Pied-Noir refugees; 213,900 are Arabs and Berbers (mostly Kabyles))
2- born in Portugal: 255.798
3- born in Morocco: 205.135 (38,635 are Jewish (mostly) and Christian (a little) Pied-Noir refugees; 166,500 are Arabs and Berbers)
4- born in Tunisia: 120.302 (34,102 are Jewish (mostly) and Christian (a little) Pied-Noir refugees; 86,200 are Arabs; no Berbers)
5- born in Guadeloupe: 76.440 (the vast majority are black)
6- born in Martinique: 71.049 (the vast majority are black)
7- born in Italy: 66.444
8- born in Spain: 64.436
9- born in Vietnam: 52.677 (a large part are ethnic Chinese)
10- born in Turkey: 51.828 (a significant part are ethnic Kurds)>