You're looking at it from the wrong point of view. France's colonies were, unlike Britian treated as part of france. That meant all of these areas in blue: htt

You're looking at it from the wrong point of view. France's colonies were, unlike Britian treated as part of france. That meant all of these areas in blue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_colonial_empire#/media/File:Scramble-for-Africa-1880-1913.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_colonial_empire#/media/... are french, with the entire population being french citizens. So this means that someone who is algerian could have french parents, but not be eligible for french citizenship. However if I as an EU citizen wanted to live in france, there is nothing stopping me. In the same way that up to the 70s an english "colonial" had the right to a british passport. Until it was decided that it wasn't acceptable to have too many "colonials" about the place.