of forced labor was abolished in 194617 and Haute Volta became again a distinct French colony in 1947, the number of Burkinabè migrants resettling to Côte d’Ivoire steadily grew in the decades to come. Côte d’Ivoire’s total population at independence in 1960 was 3.7 million people, of which 13% constituted “immigrants.”18 “Immigrants,” as then understood, referred to those residing in Côte d’Ivoire who had been born outside of Côte d’Ivoire’s newly-recognized boundaries, but who had immigrated into the country prior to its independence and permanently settled there. Félix Houphouët-Boigny ruled Côte d’Ivoire from the time of its independence on 7 August 1960 until his death in December 1993. He had a strong sense of West African unity that emerged from the important role he played in the French colonial Constituent Assembly. Houphouët-Boigny first founded the African Agricultural Union in 1944, and then the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (Parti Démocratique de la Côte d’Ivoire, or PDCI) in 1946 based on socialist principles. The PDCI joined forces with political parties from other countries from French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, creating the African Democratic Rally (Rassemblement Démocratique Africain, or RDA) coalition in a unified struggle to gain greater rights towards independence from colonial France. Under Houphouët-Boigny’s leadership and in an era of high commodity prices for the country’s principal exports of cocoa and coffee, Côte d’Ivoire’s economy, hailed as the “Ivorian miracle,” boomed. Recognizing the historical presence of migrants and the critical role they played in developing his country’s economy, Houphouët-Boigny espoused liberal immigration policies that would define his regime. Côte d’Ivoire continued to be an important immigrant-receiving country from 1960 through the 1980s as growth continued in the cocoa, coffee, palm oil, and pineapple plantations. Burkinabè continued to constitute the largest immigrant group throughout these decades, with Malians and Guineans forming the second and third largest foreign groups. 19 With respect to citizenship, Houphouët-Boigny supported a Convention on Dual Nationality elaborated in 1956. This was a project of like-minded leaders of former French colonies forming the Conseil de l’Entente, or Council of Understanding, comprising Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Haute Volta, Mali, Niger, and Togo. According to Article 1 of this Convention, nationals of the contracting parties residing in the territory of another Council State would enjoy the same rights and obligations of the citizens of the host State.20 Recognizing universal dual nationality would allow migrants to maintain 17 The forced labor system was abolished with the French Constituent Assembly’s adoption of the “HouphouëtBoigny Law,” named after the future Ivorian President, an elected deputy who led advocacy on this issue. Tony Chafer, The End of Empire in French West Africa: France’s Successful Decolonisation?, Oxford, New York: Berg, 2002, pp. 63-64. 18 Ministère de la Justice and Ministère des Droits de l’Homme et des Libertés Publiques, Draft Plan d’Action de la Côte d’Ivoire pour l’Eradication de l’Apatridie d’ici 2024, September 2016, p. 5 (on file with author). The United Nations provides an overview of the evolution of the Ivorian population, including rate of migration, as well as future demographic projections from 1950 through the year 2100. See the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Volume II: Demographic Profiles, 2015, pp. 217-220. 19 In 1961, approximately 300,000 persons of Burkinabè origin were present in Côte d’Ivoire among a total estimated population of around 3,000,000, or about 10%. Roger Decottignies and Marc de Biéville, Les Nationalités Africaines, Paris: Pedone, 1963, p. 177. The number of those of Burkinabè origin doubled between 1960 and 1975 (774,096 Burkinabè in Côte d’Ivoire in 1975), and again between 1975 and 1985 (1,565,104 Burkinabè in Côte d’Ivoire in 1988). The ranks of Malians in Côte d’Ivoire swelled from 353,873 in 1975 to 714,174 in 1988, whereas the number of Guineans increased from 98,789 in 1975 to 228,003 in 1988. Omar Merabet, Rapport Final, Termes de Référence pour une étude sur le profil migratoire de la Côte d’Ivoire, CIVI.POL and TRANSTEC, March 2006, p. 18. 20 Alfred Babo, La Politique Publique de l’Etranger et la Crise Sociopolitique en Côte d’Ivoire, in Côte d’Ivoire : La Réinvention de Soi Dans la Violence, Dakar: CODESRIA, 24 September 2011, pp. 39-62. 8