Ethnic groups

Most modern Algerians are descendants of North African Berbers, but Berber and Arab peoples have been mixing within Algerian society since the Arab invasions of the seventh century. Berber-speaking people now make up about 20 percent of the nation’s population, and communities made up solely of Berber-speakers still exist in many parts of Algeria. Arabs and Berbers generally have equal access to jobs, housing, and services in Algerian cities. The Arab conquest of North Africa in the seventh century brought the Arabic language and customs to much of northern Algeria. Unlike the nomadic Berbers, the Arabs formed a settled urban population. Gradually the Berber peoples of the desert and rural areas adopted Islam, the religion of the Arab invaders. Their faith gave Arabs and Berbers a common identity as Muslims during the conflict with the largely Roman Catholic Algerian colons. Many of Algeria’s Berber groups have remained independent of the country’s Arab society. After independence, most of the non-Muslim colonists living in Algeria left the country. Of the 100,000 Europeans who remain, about 45,000 are of French heritage. Many Europeans work in the cities as engineers, teachers, and civil servants.

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