Polygamy is illegal in France, as of 1993, and has been the center of recent political debates due to surges of Malian immigrants living polygamously in the country. Due to such, stricter laws have been enforced to stomp out polygamy. The Economist estimates that in France, 200,000 people live in 16,000 to 20,000 polygamous families, almost all of them Muslims of North or central African heritage. Several politicians stated that they perceived polygamy as a contributing cause of the 2005 French riots.