Kurds in France
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
150,000[1] ~0,2% of the population | |
Languages | |
Kurdish, French, (some knowledge of Turkish, Arabic and Persian) | |
Religion | |
Majority Sunni Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Iranian people (Yazidis, Zazas) |
Kurds in France may refer to people born in or residing in France of full or partial Kurdish origin.
There is a large Kurdish community in France, numbering around 150,000[2] people. This makes the Kurdish community in France the second largest Kurdish community in the Kurdish diaspora, after Germany.
Immigration history
In France, Kurdish immigrant workers from Turkey first arrived in the second half of the 1960s.[3] Thousands of Kurdish refugees and political refugees fled from Turkey during the 1970s and onward, from Iraq and Iran during the 1980s and 1990s, and from Syria especially during the Syrian Civil War.[4]
Political activism
In October 2014, Kurds in France and other European countries marched in protest over the ISIS offensive on the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab, known in Kurdish as Kobani.[5][6]
On 25 July 2015, Kurds in France march in Paris to protest Turkish Army airstrikes on Kurdish party PKK.[7]