What is a foreigner?

In the legal field, the term “foreigner” designates anyone who does not have the nationality of the State in which they live. In France, the term took on this meaning with the Revolution where, for the first time in history, the definition of “qualité de Français” (French status) entered into the Constitution. Since then, the legal definition of foreigner has varied according to changes in the notion of nationality – a term that entered the Académie Française’s dictionary in 1835.

Today foreigners are individuals born abroad of foreign parents, and young people under 18 born in France of foreign parents themselves born abroad. The right of foreigners to enter and stay on French territory is codified in a reference document, the Ordonnance of November 2nd 1945, which is modified by each new immigration law.

In 2020, the total population living in France was 67.3 million inhabitants. France counts 5.1 million foreigners (4.3 million immigrants who have not acquired French nationality and 0.8 million individuals born in France and who have not acquired French nationality). The foreign population represented 7.6% of the total population in 2020, cf. 6.5% in 1975 and 4.4% in 1946.

On the eve of Algerian independence in 1962, Algerians had French nationality. Nevertheless, these “French subjects” were not “French citizens”. Their legal status did not allow them to benefit from common law. So nationality and citizenship were two separate things.

Mustapha Harzoune, 2022