Postponed several times and criticized by left and right for opposing reasons, a bill on immigration will be examined in France from Monday, with explosive debates in the offing.
The government is relying on two aspects: a repressive component to “deal harshly with criminal foreigners” whose expulsion it wants to facilitate, while the fulfillment rate of the obligations to leave France in the first half of 2022 was only 6.9% an integration component, especially for “ People who work,” as French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin emphasized.
The massive arrival of migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa in September and the murder of a professor by a young Russian, a radicalized Islamist, in northern France in October have reinforced the government’s belief that this text is the right formula “for” The Security of the French,” said the Interior Ministry.
In France, 5.1 million foreigners live in a legal situation, or 7.6% of the population. It is home to more than half a million refugees. Authorities estimate the number of illegal immigrants at 600,000 to 700,000.
The text “is part of the development of legislation across Europe that tends to strengthen the instruments to better control migration flows,” analyzed AFP Didier Leschi, director general of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii).
It will be considered by the Senate and then the National Assembly, while France’s political landscape is marked by a rise in power of the far-right National Rassemblement (RN) party. According to a poll published at the end of October, her candidate Marine Le Pen would exceed the 30 percent mark if the first round of the presidential election were organized now, or at least seven points more than in the first round of 2022.
Regularizations
On the left, “we can be sure that no one will vote for this regressive text, neither in the Assembly nor in the Senate,” assures the communist senator Ian Brossat.
The text has also drawn criticism from the right and far right, particularly the flagship measure to legalize undocumented workers in “workplaces under tension,” which provides for a one-year, renewable residency permit for workers. Sectors with labor shortages.
“We cannot deport more and at the same time legalize more,” denounces the leader of the right-wing senators Bruno Retailleau, who “will have no problem voting against the text if this measure is maintained”.
Other measures are being discussed, such as the possible conversion of State Medical Assistance (AME) – which covers 100% of the health costs of undocumented immigrants staying on French soil for at least three months – into medical assistance.
The AME is a historic target of the right and the far right, who accuse it of creating a “blueprint” for illegal immigration and costing too much – currently 1.2 billion euros annually – for 400,000 beneficiaries.
But his proposed restriction divides the president’s majority, with many supporters seeing it as “public health nonsense.”
“Modern slavery”
To pass the bill, the government, which is negotiating with the right, hopes not to have to resort to Article 49-3 of the Constitution, which allows the forcible adoption of a text without a vote in Parliament, thereby assuming responsibility for the executive branch. But that might be difficult.
In this tense context, immigrants interviewed by AFP are holding their breath in the face of a bill they consider “stigmatizing”.
“It is very difficult to hear that immigrants are using help and benefits. This is a big lie,” emphasizes Mody Diawara, a 38-year-old Ivorian who works in construction: “Remember that we work hard. We work or we die, that’s the reality!”
“The law makes me very worried,” explains Aboubacar Dembélé, 31, spokesman for the striking illegal workers at the parcel delivery group Chronopost in the Paris region.
“Minister Darmanin has already said that the legalization of professions under tension does not open up new rights. It is a one-year card without the possibility of family reunification. And if you no longer practice this profession, you will lose your title. While we may have different abilities and different desires. It locks us up, it’s modern slavery,” he says.
“We want to be regulated (…) We contribute to society, we pay taxes.” We are not asking for a privilege, just our rights,” says the young Malian.