title: Congolese people in France
text: # Congolese people in France
  
  Congolese people in France consist of migrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo and their descendants living and working in France.
  
  ## History
  
  The first Congolese people to arrive in France came later than the first African immigrants. While people from the Senegal River Valley (Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea) first arrived in the 1960s, Central Africans (chiefly from Cameroon and Congo), arrived in the 1970s. Most of them come for work or familial reunification, but there is also a large number of Congolese people who come with a statute of political asylum during the 1990s.
  
  ## Notable people
  
  | Jirès Kembo Ekoko | Presnel Kimpembe | Maître Gims (Gandhi Djuna) | Jean-Victor Makengo | Steve Mandanda | Chris Mavinga |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Arnold Mvuemba | Granddi Ngoyi | Steven Nzonzi | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | Youssoupha | |
  