Black people in France

Black people in France are French citizens or residents who are of Black African or Caribbean ancestry.

Population statistics

Although it is illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and race, a law with its origins in the 1789 revolution and reaffirmed in the constitution of 1958,^[1] various population estimates exist. One source states that there are 1.5 million black people in France,^[2] while another states 1.865 million, equivalent to just under 4 per cent of the population.^[3] An article in the New York Times stated that estimates vary between 3 million and 5 million.^[4] It is estimated that four out of five black people in France are of African descent, with the remainder being of Caribbean ancestry or African Americans in France.^{[5] [6]}

Some organizations, such as the Representative Council of Black Associations (French: Conseil représentatif des associations noires de France, CRAN), have argued in favour of the introduction of data collection on minority groups but this has been resisted by other organizations and ruling politicians,^[7][8] often on the grounds that collecting such statistics goes against France's secular principles and harks back to Vichy-era identity documents.^[9] During the 2007 presidential election, however, Nicolas Sarkozy was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the collection of data on ethnicity.^[10] Part of a parliamentary bill which would have permitted the collection of data for the purpose of measuring discrimination was rejected by the Conseil Constitutionnel in November 2007.^[1]

References

See also

• Cape Verdean French
• Haitians in France