Introduction This report present general overview and different literature reviews on demographic, cultural and human wealth

aspect of France. We based our survey on the demographics of France including DOM-TOM (overseas territories) only after the second world war, approximately from 1945 to nowadays, that gives a real overview of the present population in the country. The studies on the population of France is done frequently and are calculated by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). As of January 1, 2011, 65 821 885 people live in the French Republic. 63 136 180 of these live in metropolitan France, whereas 2,685,705 live in the French overseas departments and territories. The number of people with French nationality may be in turn estimated from 1st January 2011 to about 63 600 000 or 65 026 885 people living on French soil with less than 5.7% that are foreigners and more people who are French nationality expatriate whose number can be estimated at 2.3 million.

Birth and fertility For very long time, France has been one of the country with the highest birth and fertility rates in Europe. In the past ten years, its population growth rate is the fastest of Europe, matched only by Ireland and the Netherlands. The statistics show that the immigration rate heavily contribute to this evolution, even if it has a rich historical background. Because of World War II, the annual number of births was limited to 520 000 in 1941. But in 1943 and 1944, with an average of 620 000 births per year, the birth rate exceeds that of the pre-war. These datas show already a fertility rate much higher than the year before the war. Then came the amazing increase of the French birth rate after the end of World War II. The return of the prisoners, deportees, youth of the STO (Service du Travail Obligatoire meaning Compulsory Work Service), men that were under arms and the increased number of marriages have led to an increase in the number of births in an unexpectedly way. On average, 860 000 births per year from 1946 to 1950. After five years of "over-birthrate" where many births delayed by the war took place, the number of births cuped a little bit while remaining somewhat greater than 800 000 per year. Then, in the years after 1956, growth is manifested in the birth rate maybe promoted through economic growth, the development of housing construction and foreign immigration. A maximum is reached in 1964 with 874 200 births. However, the following year, begins a decline in fertility that will profoundly mark the further evolution. This drop in fertility leads primarily that of the birth and then comes the arrival into adulthood many generations born after the war and this leads to a rise in the number of births from 1968 to 1971. But the decline in fertility finally prevailed and despite the significant increase in the number of those who are old enough to give birth, the birth rate decreases again significantly, from 878 600 in 1971 to 720 400 in 1976 .

Since the birth rate has fluctuated initially, now supported by "the third child prime" and going back to the neighborhood of 800 000 births over three years, from 1980 to 1982, to finally descend continuously from 1986 to 1994. Then there are 711 000 births. In 1996, the number of births has increased slightly (735 300), it decreased again in 1997 and rebounded slightly in 1998. [1] The cap of 800 000 will be reached again in the early beginning of the years 2000 (808 249), where we see the fertility rate increasing from 1.7 to almost 1.9. This improvement will keep on progressing until nowadays as shown in the following table, describing the evolution of the data from 2000 to 2010 (overseas territories included). Years 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Birth 808 249 804 052 793 606 793 893 800 240 807 787 830 288 816 500 834 000 821 000 830 000 Fertility 1,893 1,895 1,880 1,891 1,916 1,943 2,005 1,975 2,018 1,990 2,01

Table of birth and fertilit [2] One french researcher from INED (Institut National dEtudes Dmographiques) tried to measure the real impact of the immigration on the population. He based his results on a study from 1990 to 1998, and his results, published in 2004 shown very interesting results. It appears that french women born in France were less productive than french women coming from the immigration. We could also see that those same women, even if they are more productive than the french women, they use to have less children in France than in their original country, meaning that their fertility rate is decreasing in fact [2].

Immigration a) Historical Aspect

After the Second World War, the French birth rate increased strongly, but improvement in France economic growth was so strong that new immigrants are highly welcome into the country. The majority of the immigrants were arabs from north africa and the portuguese. The first documented immigration wave was dated to the early 1950s but very few until in 1960 and 1970 where large amount of immigrants were documented. Over a million people have immigrated from North Africa, including Algeria after the end of French rule there. There is another class of french citizens called Pieds noirs, name used for French citizens of various origins who lived in Algeria ( During French rule) before independence. One million European pieds noirs from Algeria in 1962 and subsequent years. This is a center of the current relationship between France and turbulent over three million people are French of Algerian origin, a small percentage of them third-or fourth-generation French. Between 1956 and 1967, about 235 000 Sephardic North African Jews from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco also immigrated to France due to the decline of the French empire and following the June War ( Arab-Israeli War ) which was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria. This leads to migration of mostly Sephardic North African Jews. In the late 1970s, due to the end of high economic growth in France, immigration policies were considerably tightened with Pasqua law passed in 1986 and 1993. New immigrants were allowed only through the family reunion schemes (wives and children moving to France to live with their husband or father already living in France), or as asylum seekers. In 2006, The French Ministry of the Interior estimated clandestine immigrants in France amounted to anywhere between 200 000 and 400 000, also expecting between 80 000 and 100 000 people to enter the country illegally each year. The Pasqua laws are a significant landmark in the shift in Frances immigration policy through the course of the 20th Century. They are a sign of the securitization aspect of immigration, giving more power to the police, allowing them to perform random identity checks and deport immigrants without legal papers. The rise in anti-immigration sentiments was reinforced by a series of terrorist bombs in Paris in 1986 which were linked to Muslim immigrants in France. Tightening immigration laws such as these, as well as notions of "zero immigration", reflected national views that arose within the discussion around immigrant family reunification and national identity. Nonetheless, immigration rates in the 1980s and 1990s were much lower than in the 1960s and 1970s, especially compared to other European countries. The regions of emigrations also widened, with new immigrants now coming from sub-saharan Africa, Asia. And in the 1970s, a small but well publicized wave of Chilean and Argentine political refugees (see Chilean coup of 1973) found asylum in France. Ethnic Vietnamese started to become a visible segment of society after the massive influx of refugees after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The expulsions of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam in the 1970s led to a wave of immigration and the settlement of the high-rise neighbourhood near the Porte d'Italie, where the Chinatown of Paris is located. This area contains many ethnic Chinese inhabitants.

b) Imigration Policy

Following the appointment of the present France president Nicolas Sarkozy, he created French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Codevelopment. President Sarkozys agenda has sharpened the focus placed on integration of immigrants living in France as well as their acquisition of national. In July 2006, President Sarkozy put into effect a law on immigration based upon the notion of chosen immigration, which allows immigration into France to a restricted field of employment sectors, notably the hotel and restaurant industries, construction and seasonal employment. The following summer of 2007, President Sarkozy amended the law to also require the acquisition of the French language as a pre-condition in his view to slow down migration into france. It is also important to note that France, along with other EU countries, have still not signed their agreement to the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families of 1990. This Convention is a treaty to protect migrant workers rights, in recognition of their human rights.

Caricature of a police identity control [5] Alternative policies have been discussed in formulating immigration policy, such as a quota system. At the beginning of 2008, as the government was rethinking its orientation on immigration policy with the creation of the new Ministry, the idea of a quota system was introduced as a possible alternative. In early 2008, a proposal was made to Parliament to decide each year how many immigrants to accept, based on skill and origin. However, this quota policy contradicts the French Constitution. A Commission was formed in February 2008 to study how the Constitution could be changed to allow for a quota system. The main difficulty is the origin principle of establishing a quota constituting a breach in the universalistic ideology of the French Republic. The outlook towards immigrants in France is shifting as unemployment continues to dominate the political agenda, along with political incentives to strengthen French national identity. Recent incidents, such as the 2005 civil unrest in France and French Romani repatriation have shed light on Frances immigration policies and how these are viewed globally, especially in congruence or discontinuity with the EU. A longitudinal study has been conducted since March 2010 to provide qualitative research regarding the integration of new

immigrants. This report is being finalized at the end of December 2010 and will be most relevant to provide insight into further immigration policy analysis for the French government.

Aging of the population a) Pyramid of Ages

Pyramid of Ages in France (2011) The french Pyramid of Ages reflects firt a balance between the male and female, as we can see the shape is quite similar in the two part of the pyramid. We can notice a majority of active people aged from 25 to 60, male or female. Young peoples (0 to 20) take an important place too, but the ratio of old people is very considerable, mainly for the women. This is due to many factors that are detailed in the following section.
b) Aging problem

In France, as in most of the developed countries, the proportion of elderly in the population will keep on growing: 65 years old and over represent 16% of the population in 2000, they will represent 20.9% in 2020, and 28% in 2040 (Brutel, 2001). These forecasts are taking in account three factors: - A transient phenomenon, a consequence of the "baby boom"in the years of 1946-73 (straight after the World War II). While 65-90 years old people, in 2000, were born between 1910 and 1935 period that were

approximately 14 million births, the same age in 2040 is composed of those born between 1950 and 1975, years with approximately 21 million births; - A phenomenon of long-term, longer life expectancy at age 65. Between 1950 and 1990, the probability of survival between 60 and 85 years more than doubled (Dinh, 1995) we can anticipate the continuation of this movement for years to come: in 2040, life expectancy at 60 is provided for 25 years, against 20 at the same age in 2000 (Dinh, 1995); - A phenomenon more difficult to predict, due to the decrease in the number of population under 20 years by declining birth: Brutel (2001) expects a decrease in fertility (2.1 children per woman today to 1.8 for the generation of women born in 1985), leading to 13 million under age 20 in 2050, against 15 million in 2000. The baby-boom accounts for a very large part of the aging. Among the population of these three causes, the transient effect due to the baby-boom is by far the most important: a high mortality scenario and high fertility (which only records the transient effect so) leads to 25.6% 65 years and over in 2040, that means 80% of the expected increase. The longevity effect (difference between the central scenario and the high mortality scenario) explains only 7% of the increase in the proportion of elderly, the effect expected fertility (difference between the central scenario and the high-fertility scenario) explaining only the remaining 13%. In 2060, when 65 to 90 years people will be born between 1970 and 1995, there will be a sharp slowdown in growth in weight of the elderly in the population, and we can therefore expect a stabilization of the weight around 30 %. [4].

Religion and Ethnicity Ethnicity What is Ethnicity and Religion? An ethnic group (or ethnicity) is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture , religion that stretches to the ancestry origin. It can be defined biologically as a self-perpetuating group sharing an interest in a homeland connected with a specific geographical area, a common language, traditions, food preferences, and common religious faith. Religion as a sub-word of Ethnicity is can be defined as a collection of belief systems, that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and moral values. Most religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life in the universe meaning existence of human is owe to a supernatural being. They tend to derive morality, ethics from their ideas about the human nature. The practice of a religion may also include sermons, commemoration of the activities of a god or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture [Wikipaedia].

One way or the other, Religion and Ethnicity comes from immigration into france in the earlier 60s . AT present time, About 94% of the population holds French citizenship. Most of these citizens are of French ancestry, but there are also small groups of Flemings, Catalans, Germans, Armenians, Gypsies, Russians, Poles, and others. The largest resident alien groups are Algerians, Portuguese, Moroccans, Italians, Spaniards, Tunisians, and Turks. First and foremost, France in the early days revolted against kingly rule to establish republics in the late eighteenth century. In the process, France became one of the worlds first nation states based on popular sovereignty and government by consent. After the monarchy rule, they created a legal system with democracy for all citizens. The Declaration of Independence and les droits de lhomme set forth the principle that merely being human entitles individuals to basic natural rights which is now known as civic as opposed to the ethnic type that developed in nineteenth century Europe [6]. The civic type meant that, in theory at least, one belonged to the nation simply by residing there and being human ( ancestry or blood. Right ). Looking the other way round, all nations have combined ethnic solidarity and political citizenship, . Whatever cultural or ethnicity identities , presently the words are used just to justify the revolutions and to classify origin of citizens after revolution. A second source, which clearly brought race and ethnicity was the involvement of France in the involuntary slave trade with Africans on the plantations of the Caribbean and the American South. In the period just before the revolutions of the 1790s in France and Haiti, plantation slavery and the transatlantic trade associated with it constituted the most profitable and dynamic sector of the French economy. After the loss of Haiti, it declined in 3 significance, but the planters of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Bourbon (La Runion) were able to resist abolition or even significant reform until the Revolution of 1848 unexpectedly put opponents of slavery into power. North American slavery declined at the time of the Revolution. The third source is immigration. Unlike other European nations, France has been a country of immigration rather than emigration. Because of low birth rates and the extent to which the peasantry remained rooted to the soil, France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century had to recruit much of the labor for its industrial revolution from other countries because French manpower were loss in the war created which created labor shortage, the principal sources were southern and eastern Europe, especially Italy and Poland. In the period since the 1960s, new waves of immigration, mostly from non-European sources. This source also include immigrants from overseas colonies such as west and north-africans. Conclusively, the percentage of French ethnic groups can not be specifically deduced due to their long and complicated history of immigrations, but overall they contain Celtic, Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Southeast Asian, and Basque minorities. One noted point is that the present president of france Nicolas Sarkozy, During his 2007 presidential election, however, was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the collection of data on ethnicity but the task was rejected by the Conseil Constitutionnel. Afterall, surveys and polls were carried out among some private bodies, the most numerous are people of Italian family origin and it is estimated that about 5 million citizen (8% of the population) are at least partly of Italian origin if their parentage is retraced over three generations. This is due to waves of Italian immigration, notably during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Other large European groups of non-native origin are Spaniards, Portuguese, Polish, Scadinavian Vikins, and Greeks. Also, due to more recent immigration, between five and six million people of Maghrebi origin and approximately 500,000 Turks inhabit France. Solis, a marketing company,

recently estimated the numbers for ethnic minorities (immigrants and 2nd generation) in France in 2009 as 3.26 million Maghrebis (5.23%), 1.83 million Black people (2.94%, 1.08 million Sub-Saharan Africans and 757,000 French from French West Indies, 441,000 Turkish (0.71%)

Religions Immigration is a mother term to ethnicity and religion as described above. Immigration gives birth to ethnicity and ethnicity gives birth to the religions. When there is immigration ( ethnicity movements ), thetre are differences and habits that arises based on these immigration activities. From the tradition of earlier monarchy, the French revolutionaries inherited the concept of a centralized unitary state, with the critical difference that it should now reflect the general will as manifested in an elective national assembly rather than the particular will of the ruler. The French revolution was animated by a fierce anticlericalism directed at the association of the Catholic Church with the ancien rgime, the ban on affirming religious identities in public space, can be understood in part as a defensive reaction to the Catholic Churchs longstanding opposition to the republic and its support for a monarchical restoration, dispositions that lasted until the twentieth century. The fact that a powerful, centralized, and internationally supported religious body could retain the adherence of a majority of the French people and still be at odds with the political principles of French republicanism. However, a need to come to terms with the power and popularity of the Catholic Church has forced French republican regimes to associate themselves with the church. Whichever, Catholic have been very dominant in old and present France, France is a country where freedom of religion and freedom of thought are guaranteed , Major religions in France include the Catholic Church, Protestant, Islamic, Judaism, the Russian Orthodoxy, and Armenian Christianity amongst others, making it a multiconfessional country. Church was separated from state in 1905 law, which prohibited the government from recognising, salarying or subsidising any religion however, the state subsequently re-acquired a role in the appointment of Catholic bishops which it has formally conserved, but has not exercised in many decades. Religious buildings built prior to 1905 are retained by the local and national government, but may be used at no expense by religious organizations. As a consequence, most Catholic churches are owned by the government. since 1905, due to the law, church building have to find means of supporting their own expense. Recently, An ongoing topic of controversy is whether the separation of Church and State should be weakened so that the government should be able to subsidize Muslim prayer rooms,. French president Nicolas Sarkozy declare that they would incite the Muslim population to better integrate into the fabric of French society but people Opponents contend that the state should not fund religions.

Religious organizations are not required to register in france, but may if they wish to apply for tax-exempt status or to gain official recognition. Religious groups normally register entities under both of these categories; churches run strictly religious activities through associations of worship and operate schools under cultural associations based on law . According to the Ministry of the Interior, 109 of 1,138 Protestant associations, 15 of 147 Jewish associations, and approximately 30 of 1,050 Muslim associations have tax-free status. Approximately 100 Catholic associations are tax-exempt; a representative of the Ministry of Interior reports that the number of nontax-exempt Catholic associations is too numerous to estimate accurately. More than 50 associations of the Jehovah's Witnesses have tax-free status. Religious observance nowadays is generally low. France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right and the government generally respects this right in practice. The figure below shows a table of percentage of religious and non-religious in France.

Figure X. Plot of Religions in France Image courtesy of wikipaedia