A history of Algerians in Paris and its region

The first Kabyle workers

A survey of 1921 counted about 12,000 Kabyle workers in the Paris area. Their main lodging centres were La Villette, in the 19th arrondissement, and Grenelle, the avenue du Maine and Alésia, in the 15th and 14th. Others lived on the avenue d'Italie, the boulevard de la Gare and the rue de la Glacière, in the 13th.

Three sites for Muslim workers

Between the 2 world wars, 3 sites were built for the Muslim workers of the Paris region, many of them Algerian and Kabyle. The Grande Mosquée de Paris, in the 5th arrondissement, was inaugurated in 1926.

At Bobigny, the Franco-Muslim hospital opened in 1935 and later became the Hôpital Avicenne. A Muslim cemetery opened next to it in 1937.

Saint-Denis after the Second World War

In Saint-Denis, new arrivals settled at the chemin du Cornillon, the rue du Landy, the Francs-Moisins and the chemin de Marville. Algerians also lived in furnished hotels in nearby Aubervilliers and Saint-Ouen.

In the 20th arrondissement

Aziz El Haddad, son of the head of a religious brotherhood in Kabylie, met members of the Paris Commune of 1871 in New Caledonia. Later, a former member of the Commune took him in at 45 boulevard de Ménilmontant, opposite the Père-Lachaise cemetery, in the 20th arrondissement.

There, Aziz El Haddad died on 22 August 1895. Former members of the Commune raised money to send his body home to Algeria.

Idir, the Algerian singer, composer and musician, was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery on 13 May 2020.