Italian migration into what is today
France has been going on, in different migrating cycles, for centuries, beginning in prehistoric times right to the modern age. In addition,
Corsica passed from the
Republic of Genoa to France in 1768, and the county of
Nice and
Savoy from the
Kingdom of Sardinia to France in 1860. According to
Robin Cohen, "about 5 million
French nationals are of Italian origin if their parentage is retraced over three generations". According to official data of the Eurostat for the 2012, instead of Italian citizens residing in France were 174,000.