In 2021, 10.3% of the population living in France was immigrant, against 6.5% in 1968. The origins of immigrants have diversified in fifty years, as new immigrants arriving in France are coming from a wider range of countries. Genealogies are diversifying with the mix of unions over generations : among second-generation descendants of immigrants, more than one out of two had only one immigrant parent ; among third-generation descendants of immigrants aged under 60, nine out of ten had only one or two immigrant grandparents.

Immigrants – especially those of non-European origins – suffer from a less favorable situation on the labour market, with an unemployment rate of 13% in 2021 (against 8% for the whole population), lower wages and less skilled jobs. Their living conditions, housing conditions and health are also worse than those of the rest of the population: in particular, immigrants are twice more likely to be in a situation of monetary poverty than people with no direct migration background.

The situation of the second generation is closer to the one of people with no direct migration background than the situation of immigrants is. Immigrants’ standard of living is 22% lower than that of individuals who are neither immigrants nor descendants of immigrants, but this gap is reduced to 19% for descendants of two immigrant parents, and to 6% for descendants with only one immigrant parent. However some inequalities remain, in particular in terms of access to employment and housing conditions. Finally, descendants of immigrants more often declare experiencing discriminations than the rest of the population, and descendants of non-European origins also declare it more than immigrants of the same origins: in 2019-2020, 25% of descendants of immigrants aged 18-59 declared having experienced unequal treatments, against 24% of immigrants and 14% of the population with no migration background.