Colonialism or Migration: What's to blame for the riots in France?

France is burning, and last week’s shooting was certainly the trigger. The embers were already smoking by then, mainly because of immigration. France’s demography has changed a lot in the last decades. Today, there are seven million immigrants in this country, which is around 10 per cent of the population.

People began steadily migrating there by the 1830s. In the 20th century, it was considered the most open country in Europe. Many of these migrants came from French colonies like Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. During the World Wars, France needed more manpower, so in came the migrants. But this was a colonial relationship.

The Arab and African migrants were just labor. It wasn’t a relationship of equals, and this attitude is at the root of today’s problems because France hasn’t accepted war crimes in North Africa, and hasn’t agreed to pay reparations.

For example, in France, it’s illegal to conduct census or surveys based on race and religion. By 1975, around 6 per cent of the population was of foreign origin. They were immigrants and that share did not change for 25 years.

Around 13 per cent of them are of Algerian descent, 12 per cent are from Morocco, 4.4 per cent from Tunisia and 3.8 per cent from Turkey. These are all non white people, most of them Arabic, African, and Muslim. A 2022 report claimed around 400,000 jobs are vacant in the country because there is no one to work.

Probably, Macron increased the retirement age as there is a labor shortage. France needed the foreign labor, which is why millions of people migrated in the last two decades. Plus, there is illegal migration. Most of them live in close knit communities doing odd jobs.

This year, France passed a new immigration law. It makes legalisation of undocumented migrants easier. At the same time, it bolsters deportations at the border.

Many people in France are anti immigration, and their fears often combine with racism, sometimes very publicly. Black and Arab people are 20 times more likely to be stopped by cops, 20 times more than white people. In the last three years, there have been 21 fatal police shootings.

Notably, some countries in West Africa still pay a special tax to France. They call it the colonial tax. These countries use CFA franc as their currency. They’re required to store 50 per cent of their reserves with a French central bank. The CFA franc is pegged to the euro. Former colonies are paying their colonizer. All of these factors have created major fault lines in France.

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