African immigration to Europe
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, others | |
| Languages | |
| Arabic, Kabyle, English, Caribbean English, French, Dutch, Somali, Portuguese, Spanish, others | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, Islam, others | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Capoid, Congoid, Bantu, Khoisan, Negroid, Afro-Caribbean, African, Afro-Latin American and African American, British Mixed |
An Afro-European, Afropean or Black European refers to people of African ancestry, racial, cultural and social heritage born in or citizens of any European country. It also refers to Europeans who trace their ancestry to Africa or Africans who emigrated or were transported to any European nation, especially to Portugal, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. There are reported to be 12.5 million people of African descent living in Europe. Afro-Europeans form part of the African diaspora.
For example blacks make up to 20% of footballers in various European leagues, however up until recently there were literally no blacks in coaching, administrative or corporate division relating to football. Frank Rijkaard became the first black person to Coach a European country when he was manager of the Netherlands in 2000 and has since had a successful spell coaching in Spain. Recently Senegalese born Pape Diouf became chairman of Olympique de Marseille. John Barnes states the reason there are few blacks in management is that "From an athletic point of view there will be black people because athletically we are equal, from a managerial perspective it's more to do with the intellectual aspect of it and I don't think we are regarded as intellectually equal"[1][2][3][4].
Outside of sports Harry Roselmack became the first black news anchor in France.[5][6]
The largest populations of people of African ancestry living in Europe are:
France (including overseas departements): 3,000,000 - 5,000,000[citation needed] as estimated by the Conseil représentatif des associations noires (ethnicity statistics in France are prohibited). 1/4 of the Afro-French people are from the smaller islands of the Caribbean, which are or were French possessions[citation needed]. See also the Pieds noirs.
United Kingdom: 1,668,400 + 110,000 in British overseas territories (Half of them are from African-Caribbean background or origin). Another 237,000 people are mixed race, see British mixed. In total there are over 2,015,400 British citizens of African or partial African decent. See also Black British and British Somalis.
Netherlands: 700,000 (mainly Surinamese, but also people from the Netherlands Antilles, Cape Verde, Morocco and other parts of Africa)
Germany: 300,000 (150,000 are German-born Africans and the rest are African-born citizens). See Afro-Germans.
Portugal: 100,000 (mostly from former Portuguese colonies in Africa, particularly Cape Verde and Angola)
Spain: ~505,400 Moroccans (the largest group of foreigners living in Spain)
Smaller numbers exist in:
Ireland: See Black people in Ireland.
Italy: 15,000.
Sweden: 77,500