Romanians in France

Romanians in France

Total population
200,000 (estimated)
Regions with significant populations
Paris, Île-de-France, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Île-de-France, Aquitaine, Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées, Brittany, Poitou-Charentes, Corsica, Centre-Val de Loire, Limousin, Pays de la Loire, Lower Normandy, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Languages
Romanian, French
Religion
Eastern Orthodoxism, Roman Catholicism

Romanian French is the term for a French citizen of Romanian heritage and origins, born in Romania and living as an emigrant in France or being born in France from a Romanian immigrant family, that came to France at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, there are c. 18,000 Romanian-born citizens living in France, and an unknown number of French citizens of Romanian origin or ancestry.

History

Romanians had registered a presence on France's soil since the first part of the 19th century. The first Romanians that arrived at that time were mainly rich students who came to study, principally in science and physics domains. Most of them returned to Romania after finishing their studies, although a significant number remained in France. During World War I, some Romanian soldiers were sent to France when the Kingdom of Romania joined the Allies in 1916, to help French troops in the fight against Germany.

An important figure of the Romanian-French population arrived in France in the 1950s, after the end of the war, in a period when both Romania and France were experiencing a very difficult period in their history, and were still recovering from the disasters caused by the conflict. Most of the Romanian population settled in Paris, Lille and other big cities in the north of France.

Another large wave of Romanian emigrants made their way in France in the 1990s, after the fall of Communism in Romania, caused by the Romanian Revolution of 1989. After that important event, millions of Romanians left their homeland in order to come to the West, to the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, etc., where up to this day they still form significant communities. More than half of the present-day number of Romanian-French arrived after 1990.

French language in Romania

English and French are the main foreign languages taught in schools. In 2010, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie identifies 4,756,100 French speakers in the country. According to the 2012 Eurobarometer, English is spoken by 31% of Romanians, French is spoken by 17%.

Notable persons

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  Marthe Bibesco

• Constantin Brancusi c.1905.jpg

  Constantin Brâncuși

• Michèle Laroque Cannes.jpg

  Michèle Laroque

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  Henri Coandă

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  Eugène Ionesco

• Elena Vacarescu.jpg

  Hélène Vacaresco

• Marthe Bibesco, writer and novelist
• Constantin Brâncuși, most famous Romanian sculptor
• Victor Brauner, painter
• Paul Celan, one of the major poets of the post-World War II era
• Emil Cioran, writer, philosopher and essayist
• Henri Coandă, inventor, aerodynamics pioneer
• Alice Cocéa, actress
• Jean-François Copé, politician
• Vladimir Cosma, composer and violinist
• Benjamin Fondane, poet, playwright, literary critic
• Jany Holt, actress
• Pola Illéry, actress
• Eugène Ionesco, one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd, Member of the Académie française
• Irina Ionesco, photographer
• Isidore Isou, poet, film critic, visual artist and founder of Lettrisme
• Marin Karmitz, film director and producer
• Gherasim Luca, poet
• Radu Mihăileanu, film director and screenwriter
• Serge Moscovici, social psychologist
• Anna de Noailles, member of the exiled Romanian royalty and an accomplished writer
• Elvira Popescu, stage and movie actress and theatre director
• Tristan Tzara, poet and essayist
• Elena Văcărescu, writer, twice a laureate of the Académie Française
• Ilarie Voronca, avant-garde poet and essayist