Journal article: Economic immigration from countries not belonging to the European Economic Area represented, on the average, a little more than 13,200 people per year between 2000 and 2018. This yearly figure, sensitive to political changes, has constantly risen since 2012. Economic immigrants are concentrated in Paris and a few neighboring departments, and most of them are male. Two major trends can be observed since 2018. First of all, the immigration of the highly skilled has steadily increased and accounted for more than 6,500 people in 2018. Secondly, a large proportion of economic immigration stems from a policy for legalizing the status of immigrants (including persons who were refused asylum) who had jobs but did not have working permits.