| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 500,000 to 1,000,000 (2010 estimate)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Île-de-France,Nord-Pas-de-Calais,Alsace,Lorraine,Centre-Val de Loire,Rhône-Alpes,Aquitanie,Poitou-Charentes,Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | |
| Languages | |
| Polish,French[citation needed] | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity,atheism,irreligion,Judaism[citation needed] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Poles,French,Silesians,Germans in France,Czechs in France |
Poles in France form one of the largestPolish diaspora communities in Europe. Between 500,000 and one million people ofPolish descent live inFrance,[1] concentrated in theNord-Pas de Calais region, in the metropolitan area ofLille, the historic coal-mining basin (Bassin Minier) aroundLens andValenciennes and in theIle-de-France.
Prominent members of the Polish community in France have included kingStanisław Leszczyński,Frédéric Chopin,Adam Mickiewicz,Adam Jerzy Czartoryski,Aleksander Chodźko,Marie Curie,Michel Poniatowski,Laurent Koscielny,Raymond Kopa,Ludovic Obraniak,Edward Gierek (who was raised there),Matt Pokora and singerJean-Jacques Goldman andRene Goscinny.
Close ties between theKingdom of France andPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were cemented in the 16th century, when emissaries from Poland persuaded French Prince Henri de Valois to stand for election as King of the Commonwealth. Valois won and reigned for two years in Poland but abdicated after he inherited the French throne asHenri III. The queen consort ofLouis XV and grandmother of several of his successors wasMarie Leszczyńska (1703-1768).[2]
Many members of the PolishSzlachta fled to France during the rule ofNapoleon when 100,000 Poles tried to throw off Russian rule in Poland early in the 19th century. Many had enlisted to fight in theGrande Armée, likeJózef Antoni Poniatowski,Ludwik Mateusz DembowskiPolish commanders of the Napoleonic Wars andPolish legionnaires.[3]
The so-calledGreat Emigration was the flood of exiles in the aftermath of both the 1830-1November Uprising, and a generation later, theJanuary Uprising, made up of political élites mainly from theRussian Partition of Poland-Lithuania between 1831 and 1870 who settled in France.[4]
Another wave of Polish migration, this time in search of manual work, took place between the two World Wars, when thousands of Poles were hired as contract workers to work temporarily in France. Numerous Polish farmers emigrated to the southwest of France in the 1920s, as the mass casualties of World War I left that region critically short of farm labor.[5] After the outbreak ofWorld War II Polish refugees also fled German or Soviet occupation.[6]
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, a specific Polish Resistance group,Polska Organizacja Walki o Niepodleglosc – Organisation Polonaise de Lutte pour l’Indépendance (POWN), was created on September 6, 1941, by the Polish general consul in Paris, A. Kawalkowski (code nameJustyn), and fought alongside theFrench Resistance. There were also other Polish Resistance movements in France, most notably former soldiers from theJaroslaw Dabrowski Brigade who had fought in theInternational Brigades during theSpanish Civil War went on in their struggle againstFascism in theFTP-MOI. Since 1941PPS activists in Northern France had also founded two resistance movements,Organisation S andOrzel Bialy (White Eagle). In 1944 Polish Committees for National Liberation (PKWN) were set up to support the Communist Polish army. There were clashes between POWN resistants, under the authority of the London-basedPolish government in exile, and the Communist FTP-MOI resistants.[7]
When the Communists took power in Poland, several thousand French Poles decided to go and live in the "Socialist paradise", as someArmenians in France moved to theArmenian Soviet Socialist Republic.[8]
There are estimates of 100,000 to 200,000 Poles living inParis, and many EU program guest workers live in regions of the south, includingArles,Marseille andPerpignan.[9]
The number of new Poles who migrated to France has multiplied, many are students and traders and other percentage are displaced workers who come from Poland to work in France. Poles are well integrated into French society. The number of new Polish citizens in France amounts to 350,000 in 2012.[9]
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  | .jpg) |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 | .jpg) |  |  |  | .png) |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
European diasporas in France  | ||
|---|---|---|
| Central Europe |  | |
| Eastern Europe | ||
| Northern Europe | ||
| Southeast Europe | ||
| Southern Europe | ||
| Western Europe | ||
