France, May 23 -- More immigrants coming to France have degrees- and most now come from Africa rather than the rest of Europe, new figures from the country's statistics bureau show.

Insee, France's national statistics agency, examined migration trends between 2006 and 2023. The number of people moving to France rose steadily in that period - from 234,000 in 2006 to 347,000 in 2023.

The research also found that for the first time, Africa has overtaken Europe as the main region of origin for people immigrating to France - with 45 percent of new arrivals in 2023 coming from African countries.

Half of those were from the Maghreb - North African countries such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The rest were mostly from the Comoros, Cote d'Iv...