Kanak community represents 44.6% of the whole population (as of the 1996 census),22 - They are no longer a majority, their proportion of the population having declined due to immigration and other factors. The rest of the population is made up of ethnic groups that arrived in New Caledonia in the last 150 years:Europeans (34.5%) (predominantly French, with German,British and Italian minorities), Polynesians (Wallisians, Tahitians) (11.8%), Indonesians (2.6%), Vietnamese (1.4%), Ni-Vanuatu (1.2%), and various other groups (3.9%), Tamils, other South Asians, Berbers, Japanese, Chinese, Fijians, Arabs, West Indian (mostly from other French territories) and a small number of ethnic Africans.22 - Some of this immigration was a direct consequence of various conflicts around the world but in particular of the crumbling of the French colonial empire. The Kanak are known officially as Melanesians. Similarly, those whose roots are in French Polynesia are known either as Tahitians (which excludes persons originating in the other archipelagos of French Polynesia) or simply as Polynesians (which would include both Tahitians and Wallisians, as well as many other minor groups). Whites that have lived in New Caledonia for several generations are locally known as Caldoches , whereas newcomers who have immigrated from metropolitan France are called Métros or Métropolitains . The European population also includes some pieds noirs who came after Algeria gained independence from France,23 - some of them prominent in anti-independence politics, including Pierre Maresca, a leader of the RPCR.24 - Within the official statistical category "Europeans" no distinction is made between Caledonian-born whites and French-born whites, though it is estimated that approximately two-thirds identify themselves with the Caldoche community while the rest see themselves primarily as French immigrants. There is a significant contingent of people that arrive from France to work for a year or two and others that have come to retire. The Caldoche usually refer to themselves simply as calédoniens and may be either white (mostly French or German) or white with an admixture of Asian, Melanesian or Polynesian ancestry. Caldoche culture has many similarities with Australian and Afrikaner culture. Until very recently the Kanak population held an economically disadvantaged position in New Caledonian society, while wealthy French expatriates formed the top of the socio-economic hierarchy. The Asian and Polynesian inhabitants dominate certain segments of the local economy.