Algerians Living Abroad

Algerian emigration to Europe began in the post-First World War era, when the depletion of French workers in the war and the industrial boom of the 1920's created a pressing need for unskilled migrant labourers. In the interwar period, more than one million Arabs and Berbers displaced by the formation of the great European-Algerian farming estates left for France, most on a temporary basis. After the Second World War, the French economic boom and the liberalization of Algerian immigration to metropolitan France opened up a stream of mass immigration, almost two million Algerian Muslims settling in France before Algerian independence in the 1960's. The 1960's saw the immigration of a half-million European Algerians afraid of life in independent Algeria, but at the same time Algerian entrance into the European Confederation allowed unrestrained Algerian immigration across Europe.

Circa 2000, there are an estimated 9.1 million people of Algerian descent living across Europe; this figure can be compared to the 20.4 million residents of Algeria itself. Although the largest concentrations are in France, Germany, Spain, and the other countries of Mediterranean Europe, there are substantial Algerian immigrant communities in almost every Europeans city with more than a million inhabitants. Despite the convergence of Algerian living standards with those of mainland Europe and the declining Algerian birth rate, emigration from Algeria continues.

France

Total: 5.1 million of Algerian descent (4.3 million of Algerian Muslim descent) in 1996

Geography: Main concentrations in Île-de-France, Provence, Languedoc, Alsace

Although there are more than 700 thousand French citizens who trace their ancestry to European-Algerian immigration from Algeria in the years immediately following independence, by far the most prominent Algerian-origin community includes the Arab and Berber immigrants and their descendants. An estimated 50% of all French residents of Algerian Muslim origin speak French as their first language, and there are relatively few strict practitioners of Islam; many Algerian immigrants are assimilating as thoroughly into French society in the 21st century as did Jewish immigrants in the 20th century. Despite this, and an enlightened government policy aimed at absorbing the Algerian immigrants, there is considerable popular prejudice among Christian French towards the Muslims over cultural and religious differences.

Spain

Total: 1.3 million of Algerian Muslim descent in 1996

Geography: Main concentrations in Andalucía, Castile, Catalunya

Until the mid-1960's Spain was a net exporter of labour, with the poor of southern Spain leaving either for the Spanish industrial region of Catalunya or to western Europe. The sharp drop in fertility rates in Hispanophone Spain since 1980 has created a growing labour shortage that has been filled by Algerian immigrants. A high proportion of these Algerian immigrants migrate on a seasonal basis, making homes in Andalucía during the agricultural and tourist season of summer, while most permanent Algerian residents of Spain live in greater Madrid, Bascongadas, and the New Principality of Catalunya. The Algerian residents of Spain are subject to considerable harassment, often with tacit official support, on the grounds of their Islamic faith.

Germany

Total: 1.0 million of Algerian Muslim descent in 1999

Geography: Main concentrations in Rhineland, Westphalia

Below-replacement German fertility rates, the decline of immigration from poorer areas of southern and eastern Europe, and rapid economic growth in Germany throughout the 1970's created a pressing need in Germany for gastarbeiter. Due to the relative poverty of Algeria, German recruiting officers were able to secure a substantial flow of immigrants from Algeria throughout the 1970's and 1980's. Like the other Muslim gastarbeiter, the Algerians living in Germany are highly urbanized, live separately from their Christian neighbours and are often the subject of petty discrimination. Despite this, there has been substantial improvement in official and popular attitudes in Germany in the 1990's, and some Algerian immigrants continue to immigrate to Germany.