INSEE published, Thursday April 4, 2024, a report on migratory flows in France in 2022. In total, 431,000 people arrived on French soil that year. An increase compared to 2021 to be analyzed in the light of the war in Ukraine, started in February 2022, but also at the end of restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Of the 431,000 entries recorded in 2022 – via the annual census survey bulletins – 331,000 are immigrants. There is no question here of regularity or irregularity; INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) borrows the definition from the High Commission for Integration, and not that of the Ministry of the Interior, which counts valid residence permits.
For INSEE, an immigrant person is a person “ born abroad of foreign nationality », Explains Pierre Tanneau, statistician within the institute and specialist in the immigration file. Conversely, a non-immigrant person was either born in France – regardless of nationality – or born French abroad. Clarification: if an immigrant acquires French nationality, even very quickly after arriving in France, they will always be counted in the “ immigrant population “.
A majority of European nationals
Among non-immigrants entering France in 2022, 76,000 were born in France and 25,000 were born French in another country. There were 331,000 immigrants who reached French soil that year; 114,000 come from the African continent, 52,000 from Asia and 30,000 from America or Oceania. The majority (134,000) are nationals of the European continent.
Overall, immigrant arrivals are up 35% in 2022 compared to 2021, largely due to the war that broke out in Ukraine in February. “ The number of entries of immigrants from Ukraine increased 30-fold between 2021 and 2022 », notes Pierre Tanneau.
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More women
While fewer and fewer women have immigrated to France since 2010, in 2022 they are in the slight majority (53%). Once again, the growing share of women in these entries is different depending on their origins. There are fewer of them coming from Turkey, the Middle East or Europe, but considerably more numerous coming from European countries outside the European Union, particularly from Ukraine; 2 out of 3 Ukrainian nationals arriving in France in 2022 are women.
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Young and qualified people
Women who have entered are also more highly educated than men. To measure it, INSEE looked, regardless of origin, at those over 25, in order to only take into account those whose school or university career had been completed. 54% of new immigrants arriving in 2022 have a higher education diploma, compared to 36% of the entire population aged 25 or over.
Also note: the INSEE count measures entries provided that there is an intention to stay for more than one year. In other words, a foreign student who has spent less than a year at university in France will not be counted.
► Find the study on the INSEE website