Question: Why did about 1.6 million "pieds noirs" return to France in the 1960s?
About the article "France", section "Demographics".

Candidate passages:
The majority of the inhabitants of the town are pieds-noirs from Northwest Africa who immigrated to France in the 1960s.
Sarcelles is also home to a vibrant Jewish community and the largest concentration of Assyrians in France. 
French in Africa.
North Africa.
Large numbers of French people settled in French North Africa from the 1840s onward.
By the end of French rule in the early 1960s there were over one million European Algerians, mostly of French origin (known as "pieds noirs", or "black feet") living in Algeria, consisting about 16% of the population in 1962.
There were 255,000 Europeans in Tunisia in 1956.
Morocco was home to half a million Europeans.
French law made it easy for thousands of "colons", ethnic or national French from former colonies of Africa, India, and Indochina to live in mainland France.
1.6 million European "colons" migrated from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.
As of December 31, 2011 there were 94,382 French citizens in all three countries, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. 
During the French colonial period (1830–1962), Algeria contained a large European population of 1.6 million who constituted 15.2% of the total population in 1962.
Consisting primarily of French people, other populations included Spaniards in the west of the country, Italians and Maltese in the east, and other Europeans in smaller numbers.
Known as "Pieds-Noirs", European colonists were concentrated on the coast and formed a majority of the population of Oran (60%) and important proportions in other large cities like in the capital Algiers and Bône.
In 1871, the indigenous Jews obtained the French nationality, and they were also considered as pieds noirs.
However, the indigenous Algerian Muslims remained a large majority of the territory's population throughout its history, and before the invasion and colonization of Algeria by France, Europeans were practically nonexistent.
Gradually, dissatisfaction among the Muslim population with its lack of political rights (Muslims were denied French citizenship and the right to vote or to be elected) and economic status fueled calls for greater political autonomy and eventually independence from France.
Tensions between the two population groups came to a head in 1954, when the first violent events of what was later called the Algerian War began.
The very bloody and bitter war concluded in 1962 when Algeria gained complete independence following the March 1962 Evian agreements on July 3, 1962.
This was the exodus for the "pieds noirs".
On the eve and during Algerian independence in 1962, more than one million "Pied-Noir" settlers of French nationality immediately fled or were evacuated to mainland France.
However, with continuing violence and discrimination by the Algerian state and people against the remaining settlers, most of the remainder of the population of 100,000 people (less than 1% of the population) who stayed after 1962, also fled during the 1960s.
The "Pieds-Noirs" felt unable to return to their birthplace, Algeria, because of the independence movement's violence and resentment felt against the former "Pied-Noir" settlers by the FLN.
By 1990 and the eve of the extremely violent Algerian civil war (1991–2002), only 30,000 Europeans remained.
Several Islamist terrorist groups, principally the Islamic Armed Movement (MIA), based in the mountains, and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), based in the towns, began terrorist campaigns initially targeting the army and police, but some groups soon started attacking villages and massacring civilians regardless of age and gender.
After announcing its campaign against foreigners living in Algeria in 1993, the GIA has killed more than 100 expatriate men and women in the country.
Many of the 30,000 Europeans also left Algeria for safety reasons.
Very few Europeans remain today in Algeria. 
The "Pied-Noir" relationship with France and Algeria was marked by alienation.
The settlers considered themselves French, but many of the "Pieds-Noirs" had a tenuous connection to mainland France, which 28 percent of them had never visited.
The settlers encompassed a range of socioeconomic "strata", ranging from peasants to large landowners, the latter of whom were referred to as "grands colons".
In Algeria, the Muslims were not considered French and did not share the same political or economic benefits.
For example, the indigenous population did not own most of the settlements, farms, or businesses, although they numbered nearly 9 million (versus roughly one million "Pieds-Noirs") at independence.
Politically, the Muslim Algerians had no representation in the Algerian National Assembly and wielded limited influence in local governance.
To obtain citizenship, they were required to renounce their Muslim identity.
Since this would constitute apostasy, only about 2,500 Muslims acquired citizenship before 1930.
The settlers' politically and economically dominant position worsened relations between the two groups. 
Pied-Noir (, "Black-Foot"), plural Pieds-Noirs, is a term referring to people of French and other European ancestry who lived in French North Africa, namely French Algeria, the French protectorate in Morocco, or the French protectorate of Tunisia, often for generations, until the end of French rule in North Africa between 1956 and 1962.
Specifically, the term "Pieds-Noirs" is used for those European-descendent citizens who "returned" to mainland France as soon as Algeria gained independence, or in the months following.
The Europeans arrived in Algeria as immigrants from all over the western Mediterranean (particularly France, Spain, Italy and Malta), starting in 1830.
The term is sometimes also used to include the indigenous Sephardi Jewish population, who settled in the Maghreb long before 1830, but many of whom likewise emigrated after 1962.
From the French invasion on 18 June 1830 until its independence, Algeria was administratively part of France (French departments in 1848) and its European population was simply called Algerians or "colons" (colonists), whereas the Muslim people of Algeria were called Arabs, Muslims or Indigenous.
The term "Pieds-Noirs" began to be used commonly shortly before the end of the Algerian independence war in 1962.
As of the last census in Algeria, taken on 1 June 1960, there were 1,050,000 non-Muslim civilians in Algeria (10 percent of the total population including 130,000 Algerian Jews).
During the Algerian War the "Pieds-Noirs" supported colonial French rule in Algeria and were naturally opposed to Algerian nationalist groups such as the Front de libération nationale (FLN) and Mouvement national algérien (MNA).
The roots of the conflict reside in political and economic inequalities perceived as an "alienation" from the French rule as well as a demand for a leading position for the Berber, Arab, and Islamic cultures and rules existing before the French conquest.
The conflict contributed to the fall of the French Fourth Republic and the mass exodus of Algerian Europeans and Jews to France.
After Algeria became independent in 1962, about 800,000 "Pieds-Noirs" of French nationality were evacuated to mainland France while about 200,000 chose to remain in Algeria.
Of the latter, there were still about 100,000 in 1965 and about 50,000 by the end of the 1960s.
Those who moved to France suffered ostracism from the Left for their perceived exploitation of native Muslims and some blamed them for the war, thus the political turmoil surrounding the collapse of the French Fourth Republic.
In popular culture, the community is often represented as feeling removed from French culture while longing for Algeria.
Thus, the recent history of the "pieds-noirs" has been imprinted with a theme of double alienation from both their native homeland and their adopted land.
Though the term "rapatriés d'Algérie" implies that they once lived in France, they were born in Algeria, and many families lived there for generations.