Recherche

Whereas emigration has been common within Portuguese society for several centuries, the massive arrival of Portuguese people in France only dates from the late 1950s. Until this time, Portuguese migrants preferred the distant coasts of America, Africa or even the Pacific. From representing a residual share of foreigners in France during the first five decades of the 20 th century, in the space of a few years, the Portuguese became the largest foreign "community". In seventeen years, the number of Portuguese living in France went from 20,000 (1958) to 750,000 (1975).

Although it is difficult to quantify it exactly, illegal immigration has been constantly developing and concerns all western countries. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2017 Europe counted between 3.9 and 4.8 million illegal foreigners. With each having 1.2 million illegals in the high range, Germany and the United Kingdom welcome half of all illegal immigrants. When Italy and France are added, 70% of illegals are living in these four countries, which represent half of the total European population. France is said to count 400,000 illegal foreigners on its soil, including 38,000 waiting for a decision on their asylum-seeker status.

The French also emigrate and become immigrants in the countries where they settle. On January 1 st 2022, according to consulate and embassy records, the number of French “expatriates” was 1,614, 772. A 4.2% drop compared to the previous year (1,685,638 as of January 1 st 2021) and this was the case for the fourth consecutive year, after several years of increasing by 3 to 4% on average per year. Since being registered with consuls is optional, for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, " the total French population abroad is estimated at over 2.5 million”.

Until now, migration historians have tended to study the movements of poor populations towards wealthy countries. For that reason, the presence in France of a population that does not correspond to the usual patterns, originating from the United States of America, the wealthy country par excellence, sparked our curiosity…

Since February 24 th 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe has been confronted with a migratory and humanitarian drama of a kind not seen since the end of World War 2. The continent has experienced the “unimaginable”: an unimaginable that has been the fate of other regions in the world in Africa, Asia or the Near East, a fact that researcher Matthieu Tardis reminds us of ( Le Monde, May 17 th 2022). Although Europe approached the reception given to Syrian refugees during the crisis of 2015 with disunity, in 2022, they took a united stand, although the efforts were unequally distributed.

Confronted with the influx of millions of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, the reaction of solidarity was unanimous in Europe, from Poland to France, in the media and within political parties. On February 25 th 2022, on Europe 1, parliamentary representative for the MoDem party Jean-Louis Bourlanges declared that Ukrainians in France would represent “ high-quality immigration that we can draw benefit from”. On February 28 th, the deputy Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari and the CEO of the SNCF group decreed that TGV and Intercité train fares would be free for Ukrainian refugees. Soon after, the question of according universal protection and right to asylum was raised. Hence on March 1 st, the CGT-rail workers union demanded that the free fares be extended to all refugees, considering that there was no reason to select “ good and bad refugees”. Reacting to Mr. Bourlanges’ statement, journalist Yaël Goosz asked: “ so there are less useful refugees… Because they’re too different from us culturally? Not Christians or not Europeans? (...) As if we must call it ‘welcoming refugees’ when talking about Ukrainians, but ‘migrant crisis’ when referring to the fate of Iraqis, Syrians, or Afghans!” (France Inter, March 2nd).