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11 The Chinese and Chinese Districts in Paris Michelle Guillon Chinese statistics estimate at 2 10000 the population of Chinese origin (Huarell) living in France. 1 I do not know the statistical source of this estimate. Indeed in France there is no data concerning the ethnic origins of its inhabitants. In the framework of a censliS or a survey. questioning people about their ethnic origin could appear discriminatory and would in fact be illegal, although it is generally accepted in many Western countries [ike the United Kingdom, the United Stares or Canada. France has long been a land of immigration and has evolved a system that integrates individuals rather than communities since the nineteenth century. Thus, as regards immigration, only data concerning (he legalllatiol1ality of individuals is available. In (his analysis of the Chinese districts of Paris, I have relied on the resuhs of the Population Census, and particularly on the most recent one, carried out in 1990. Thanks to my colleague Yvan Chauvire, Assistam Professor of the University of Paris I, the data processing has been worked out, allowing the production of unpublished tables. For this study I have chosen five previous and present-day nationalities: the Chinese, Taiwanese, Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnamese, though it was not possible to distinguish those among them who were of Chinese stock. The Census is the only source of statistics in France that differentiates not only the various foreigners but also former foreigners who have become French citizens and whose former nationality is indicated. This gave me the opportunity to include in this study naturalized citizens as wen as the 186 Michelle Gllillon former nationals from the above countries. This is essential; since 1990, 40 percent of them have become french. In this chapter, I will call the various population 'Asians' to simplify matters, a term customarily used ro refer to rhem in France. In everyday language, this term is applied ro people born in the zone of Chinese culture and does not include the Indian subcontinent, which is not the case in Anglo-Saxon countries. In 1990, the Census gave a total of 203000 Asians, as defined above, living in France. This suggests that the estimate of Rellkou Yall;;u is somewhat overva lued. Half the Asians who have settled in France live in the Paris area, in the lIe-de-france region. This region includes the capital and its widespread metropolitan area with a total of 10.7 million inhabitanrs. The urban environmenr is varied and reflects a long urban history. In Paris the bourgeois West districts arc in sharp contrast with the old working-class neighbourhoods in the East which arc undergoing a certain gentrification. From time to time during rebuilding and renewal in the 1960s, factories and workshops were pulled down and replaced by high-rise buildings. Around Paris, from the northwest to the northeast, the old industrial suburbs have also changed. The factories and the decaying areas are next ro districts of private hOllses and collecrive blocks of flats. Many are state built lodgings, owned more or less directly by the local authorities which rent them out ro working-class tenams. Towards the west and southwest of Paris the smart districts become prosperous residential suburbs with a mixture of private houses and small, select blocks of flats. The Southern suburbs that stretch away beyond a narrow belt of old industries are where the middle class resides. Beyond the strip which was built up befote the First World War, the area is not so densely built-up; there are more private dwellings and they arc built on much more spacious grounds. Bur it is in this second ring of suburbs tbat the biggest housing schemes were erected between 1960 and 1980; the rower blocks and low, flat facades of these social lodgings contrast starkly with the low-profile houses that surround them. Then, from the 1970s onwards the major parr of new buildings was set apart in zones of planned construction, called the 'New Cities', extending around the futuristic centres of housing estates for the building of series of identical detached houses. The Asians are by no means the only immigrants to live in the Ile-deFrance region; 17.5 percent of French inhabitants but 38 percent of the immigrants settled in the country live here. The cosmopolitan character of Paris goes back into tbe past and has become more nOticeable since the economic crisis. Whereas foreigners and naturalized citizens represent 9.4 percent of the French population, their...

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