FRANCE: Immigration in France accelerated rapidly between 1999 and 2004, with more migrants arriving from Africa and Asia than from Europe, more women arriving than men, and fewer of them holding academic qualifications.
The findings of a report published today by Insee, the state statistics agency, will make interesting reading for French politicians gearing up for next April's presidential elections.
Immigration is expected to top the agenda in the presidential campaign amid heated debates over whether the country should welcome any more foreigners as it grapples with how to integrate the millions of migrants it has already accepted.
The idea that France has been attracting more women and fewer qualified migrants could support the argument of Nicolas Sarkozy, interior minister and presidential hopeful, that the country needs to be more selective over who it allows in.
France's immigrant population, defined as people born outside France, reached 4.9 million by mid-2004, according to Insee's surveys in 2004 and 2005. This compared with 4.3 million in 1999 and 4.2 million in 1990, suggesting the migrant flow is accelerating rapidly.
However, Guy Desplanques, head of demography at Insee, said the 1999 survey had underestimated immigrant numbers, so the increase up to mid-2004 was likely to have been lower than the published 14 per cent.
One of the report's most eye-catching findings was that an improvement in the educational qualifications of immigrants arriving in France between 1982 and 1999 went into reverse in the first half of this decade. While 37 per cent of the immigrants living in France for less than 10 years in 1999 had higher education qualifications, this fell to only 33 per cent of those surveyed in 2004-05. Mr Desplanques said this had "much to do with the sources of the immigration, as more people are coming from countries with low levels of education, such as sub-Saharan Africa". Immigration from sub-Saharan Africa increased by 45 per cent to 570,000.
Mr Sarkozy is trying to attract more qualified immigrants with his recent law tightening the rules for migration by families and spouses, and promising to grant visas only to people willing to work in areas, such as construction, agriculture and hotels, where there is a labour shortage.
Thierry Mariani, parliament's rapporteur for Mr Sarkozy's law, said: "What is worrying is that immigrants in France are already much less qualified than they are in other countries, like the UK." France already had 110,000 immigrants from the mostly east European countries that joined the European Union in May 2004.
However, as France kept its borders closed to workers from the new EU members, it is less likely to have experienced the big jump in migrants other countries have. In May, France partially opened its borders up to the new EU members, allowing people to work in sectors with labour shortages.
Mr Mariani said he felt it was "an error" to shut out east Europeans, as "countries like the UK, Ireland and Sweden have taken the best talent".