For many years, public statistics in France, especially censuses, did not categorize the population on the basis of ethnicity. From the mid-1980s on, however, there has been a growing debate on immigration, leading to the progressive resurgence of the ethnicity question. The heated debate, challenging values so fundamental to French society, was fueled by the publication of a study on immigrant populations, pressure by various academic circles on the National Institute of Economic Statistics (INSEE in its French acronym) to change its method of counting immigrants, and by the preparation of the 1999 census. The debate poses some fundamental questions: Should we construct statistical categories based on ethnic affiliation to allow for the formulation of public policies directed against discriminatory practices? How do we define ethnic affiliation? How is demography to be used in the construction of such categories? What role should the census play in redefining the identity markers of individuals?

The debate is interesting in that it echoes the arguments voiced in France during the second half of the nineteenth century on the question of including categories in public statistics based on origins, as well as the recurring debate on the statistical identification of immigrants. Glancing at the debate, one might get the impression that it juxtaposes the adherents of a republican ethic versus those who defend an empirical reality; but, as we shall see, the relationship to the older debate is a complex one.