As the text arrives in the Senate on March 28, OFII director Didier Leschi is ensuring that mastery of the language is part of a “European harmonization”.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 3/13/2023 at 1:09 PM, updated 3/13/2023 at 2:31 PM
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Didier Leschi, Director of the French Office for Immigration and Integration, during a photo session in Paris, June 9, 2022. JOEL SAGET / AFP
Foreigners who fail the French test that the government intends to impose under its immigration law will not be expelled, the head of France’s Immigration and Integration Service (OFII), Didier Leschi, assured on Monday, March 13.
The executive’s text, which will have to be debated in the Senate from March 28, provides for “making the initial issue of a multi-year residence permit conditional on mastering a minimum level of French”, with the receipt of these cards currently being required only to participate at language training.
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It is not about excluding people from the right of residence through this language goal.
Didier Leschi, Director General of the French Office for Immigration and Integration
“It’s not because we don’t have a multiannual title that we can’t have a new annual title. It’s not about excluding people from the right of residence through this language target,” explained Didier Leschi, who was heard by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) on Monday morning.
“Setting people a goal is one way to help motivate them. The language requirements are now quite low, since they have to attend 80% of the lessons” while 67% of the signers of the Republican Integration Treaty (CIR) reach the minimum level in French, he continued to defend this measure of integration part of the bill.
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“European harmonization”
It is a matter of “European harmonization”, estimated the general director of Ofii. “Countries that have a much stronger language requirement are not necessarily countries that are less integrated,” he emphasized, using the example of Germany, where the language requirement “already exists before arriving on German territory”, as part of family reunification.
With this law, the government also wants to facilitate the deportation of foreign criminals and initiate a structural reform of the asylum law. The text, against which the Republicans are radically opposed, has to be examined in the (right-wing controlled) Senate by the beginning of April before it is planned to be passed in the National Assembly in the summer.
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