Most French Algerian settlers were actually Spanish and Italian immigrants.

Evidence

Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, more than a half of the colonists came from other European countries like Spain and Italy, and from Mediterranean islands such as Malta and the Balearic Islands. In order to win this demographic ‘battle’ with Spain and Italy, France naturalized the Algerian Jews (1870) and the Europeans born in Algeria (1889). — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 50

Categorization

• XREF: Valuable for the manufactured-vs-primordial identity question: solidarity group identity built on recent naturalization and shared material position, not deep ancestry. — connects to: Most Algerian colons were not ethnically French at all. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 88; By 1917 only one in five Algerian Europeans was of true French descent — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 152; Thousands of French urban poor were deported to colonize Algeria between 1848 and 1851
• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone working on settler-colonial identity construction in Algeria — this inverts the standard French-settler narrative.

Broader Connections

• Most Algerian colons were not ethnically French at all. #corroborates (0.92) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 88
• By 1917 only one in five Algerian Europeans was of true French descent #corroborates (0.90) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 152
• Thousands of French urban poor were deported to colonize Algeria between 1848 and 1851 #exemplifies (0.75)