Lexicon
Definitions of terms employed
Long-term international migration
Under the international recommendations, a long-term immigrant is a
person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual
residence for a period of at least a year (12 months). The
immigration (or admission) statistics presented here are harmonized
in line with this general definition.
Note that no reliable statistics on emigration (or departures) are
available for France. INSEE nonetheless publishes an annual
estimate of net migration.
Reference document: Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration, United Nations, 1998.
Population concerned
The INED evaluation concerns foreign immigration, and thus excludes
entries of French nationals. It counts all persons born abroad and
of foreign nationality admitted for legal residence in France for a
period of at least one year, whatever their nationality, age,
family situation or occupation.
The statistics thus include entries of citizens of a European Union
country and their minor children, as well as students with a
residence permit of at least one year. They also include foreigners
regularized on the date of their admission for residence. They do
not include foreigners entering the country for a short period,
seasonal workers, asylum seekers awaiting status determination and
undocumented foreign immigrants.
Classification variables
The available tables are based on the following variables:
Year of admission
Sex
Age
Nationality
Reason for admission
Département
Year of admission
This is the year in which the foreigner was admitted for residence.
For adult foreigners, for example, it is the year in which they
obtained their first residence permit of at least one year's
duration. For minors, it corresponds, for example, to the year in
which the family reunification procedure was accepted. Foreigners
admitted for legal residence in a given year may have arrived
during a previous year. In these cases, the year of admission is
not the same as the year of entry to France.
Sex
This variable is always known for adults. It may sometimes be
unknown for incoming minors. In this case, an imputation procedure
is used, assuming a balanced sex ratio.
Age
This is the age at admission for legal residence, calculated as the
difference in calendar years between the year of admission and the
year of birth. This age is different from the age at the time of
physical entry to France, which may be one or several years younger
in the event of subsequent regularization.
Nationality
The list of nationalities given in the detailed tables does not
cover all countries of the world. It is limited to around one
hundred nationalities (accounting for the vast majority of
admissions) currently available in the OMI yearbooks. Nationality
should not be confused with previous country of residence or
country of birth.
Reason for admission
When an adult foreigner enters France, the reason for admission is
determined according to the legal criterion upon which granting of
the residence permit was based. The reason for admission thus
depends on the legal provisions governing the entry and residence
of foreign nationals and only partially reflects the real reason
for residence in France. Given the broad scope of current
provisions, the reasons for admission have been grouped under 8
headings (worker, relative of a French national, relative of a
foreign national, student, refugee, inactive, "visitor",
other).
Minors, who are not required to have a residence permit, are
classified separately.
Département
This is the département where the immigrant was admitted. It should
not be confused with his or her current département of
residence.