Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej
Let's remember that the vast majority of France's non-white population are either from former French colonies or descendants of people from former French colonies; these people had to go to the "mother" country to seek economic opportunities after the mother country exploited the people and resources in their colonized areas; they otherwise wouldn't have a reason to leave their homelands.
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You are confusing the British, Spanish, Portuguese colonial empires with the French colonial empire (at least the 2nd colonial empire).
The 2nd colonial empire of France was never about economic exploitation. It was merely about political assertion ("a great power must have colonies and cannot be outshone by the UK"), and protection of Christian minorities (that played a large role in the French colonisation of Vietnam). The thought of exploiting (or developing from scratch) local resources only came later, ex post, to justify the costs of establishing the colonial empire (because there was a very big party in France that was hostile to colonial expansion, and these people needed to be placated by the colonial party, so the colonial party had to "prove" that the colonies were profitable to France).
It was the same for the German colonial empire: it was merely developed to assert German power and importance as a great power, not for economic reasons.
The 1st French colonial empire was entirely different, it was colonization to exploit/develop local resources and make a profit. Ironically, most of the colonies from the 1st French colonial empire are still part of France (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, French Guiana), and the only significant independent country from this 1st colonial empire is Haiti, whose immigrants in France are only a small fraction of the total of immigrants in France. And obviously also Canada and Louisiana, which don't really send migrants to France.
So: 1st French colonial empire = British/Spanish/Portuguese/Dutch colonial empires --> economic motives (but this empire contributes only to a small fraction of immigrants in France).
2nd French colonial empire = German colonial empire (but totally different from British/Dutch/Belgian colonial empires) --> primarily political motives (economic exploitation merely an afterthought, and colonial historians have shown that this 2nd French colonial empire was never profitable to France, unlike the 1st one which was immensely profitable to France; the 2nd colonial empire cost more overall than what France gained from it, and it probably delayed French economic development by diverting French capital towards unproductive colonies).
But the irony of this, because history is often ironic, is that migration flows to France now are largely shaped by this 2nd colonial empire, whereas the 1st one is largely forgotten.
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