More than 400,000 foreign students in France: university, a golden immigration channel; 53% are from the African continent
Misuse of the right to asylum is no longer the preferred route for immigration candidates to France. Since 2022, studies have become the main reason for granting initial residence permits in our country. This is the result of the "Welcome to France" strategy, announced with great fanfare by Édouard Philippe at the end of 2019. "By welcoming the brightest and most deserving students, whether they come from Beijing or Kinshasa, whether they study artificial intelligence or medieval linguistics, we ourselves will be much stronger," the Prime Minister enthused at the time. "Indian, Russian, and Chinese students will be more numerous and should be," predicted Emmanuel Macron. The government then set the objective of "500,000 foreign students by 2027." From this perspective, "Welcome to France" is a resounding success: five years after its launch, their number has actually increased by 17%, reaching 419,694 in 2023 and 2024 – or 14% of the student population in our country. Among them, 99,821 were already residing in France before entering a university course. But last year, 110,633 new residence permits were granted for student reasons, representing a third of all first-time residence permits. This represents a 70% increase in ten years.
These figures appear in the report from the Immigration and Demographic Observatory, which Le Figaro Magazine was the first to receive. Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti, director of the OID, wanted to go well beyond these flattering statistics. His study, of unprecedented precision, reveals who really benefits from this "attractiveness" so vaunted by Emmanuel Macron – "Bienvenue en France" is the student version of the "Choose France" operation, which he launched in 2017 and in which he continues to be personally involved. The Indians, Russians, and Chinese, whose massive arrival the president fantasized about, are far from making up the bulk of the contingent of foreign students in France. "The African continent is the largest provider and also the one whose number of applicants is growing the fastest," reveals the OID. In detail, 28% of international students in France come from North Africa and the Middle East (mainly Lebanon) and 25% from sub-Saharan Africa. While the new arrivals recorded in 2023 are of 149 different nationalities, the growth in flows is mainly driven by the African continent: 6 out of 10 foreigners who obtained a first residence permit for student reasons are from Africa or the Middle East.
Enrollment from sub-Saharan Africa alone has increased by 34% in five years, twice as fast as the average for other countries. As a result, 53% of foreign students currently come from the African continent, the Maghreb, or the Middle East. And this situation is specific to our country, since France primarily hosts Moroccans and Algerians, while the leading country of origin for foreign students in the OECD is China and the second, India. France alone hosts 45% of sub-Saharan students coming to study in Europe. It is even their number one destination in the world. In terms of foreign student enrollment for the 2023-2024 academic year, Morocco was the leading country of origin, followed by Algeria. China ranked third, but with a flow down 5% over five years, while the Algerian flow increased by 10% over the same period, that of Ivory Coast by 32%, that of Lebanon by 90% and that of Benin by 105%.
As with immigration in general, the political context of the countries of origin largely explains the extent of these variations. The growing pressure from Hezbollah in Lebanon, before the Israeli operations of September 2024, and the economic difficulties in Benin, combined with the authoritarian turn of President Patrice Talon, constitute powerful reasons for expatriation. But these factors make the "chosen" student immigration strategy claimed by our country theoretical. Édouard Philippe had promised a "form of revolution": "That our attractiveness be no longer based so much on quasi-free education as on a real choice, a real desire, that of excellence." A so-called "solidarity equity" system was supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff by making studies payable for foreigners "who have ample means to do so," with "the less fortunate and the most deserving of the other students welcomed" being provided with scholarships. How does this merit-based selection work? It doesn't happen, replies the OID. Worse still: the Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right to Asylum, the famous Ceseda, makes it impossible by making student immigration an "enforceable" right. In short, anyone applying for a visa, for four months to a year, or a student residence permit, valid for several years, is entitled to it as long as they are enrolled in an educational institution in France and have the "necessary means of subsistence," set at 615 euros per month. A sum that Ceseda doesn't even require for initial residence permit applications. Not to mention the completely unconditional welcome of Palestinian students practiced by certain institutions like Sciences Po Lille.
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Fdesouche
