Echourok reveals details about the Algerian- French treaty over immigration

A consular document issued on October 2010, dealing with the unofficial discussions launched between the Algerian and French authorities over the “revision of the bilateral agreement concerning the movement of the Algerian families, employment and settlement” which are due to start a new round today in Paris, has revealed a deep disagreement between the two parties expressed in the Algerian delegation’s reservations over the suggestions contained in the revised agreement.

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• Echourok put the focus on the party concerning students, businessmen and individuals married to the French nationals and the beneficiaries of families’ entry, which aims at suppressing all the remaining vested rights of the Algerian immigrants after three revisions in a row, the last one in 2001.
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• The French authorities raised the issue of the necessity to revise the 1968 treaty with their Algerian counterparts concerning the movement of people, employment and settlement, after the coming of Sarkozy to power in 2007.
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• The French president started with the creation of a brand new ministry called the Ministry of Immigration, Integration and National Identity led by his old and close friend Brice Hortefeux who was assigned the task to pursue the reforms started by Nicholas Sarkozy when he was at the top of the Interior Ministry.
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• Nicholas Sarkozy considered then that the old immigration laws were a financial burden for
• the French economy and would undermine the French social stability and threaten its unity.
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• After big controversy, the French rightist government wants to pass the new law based on two principles: decreasing the number of immigrants entering the French soil as apart of the families’ settlement through coercive measures including housing for the immigrant who expresses the will to bring his family members. By contrast, the law encourages the coming of skilled immigrants increasing the number to the half of the gross total immigrants while they were representing 7 % of the total in the past.
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• The new immigrants selected for their professional skills, were granted as from 2007 a three –year staying permit called “ Vocational Qualifications Certificate” . The immigrants who chose to dwell in France under the new conditions will automatically his right to stay on the French soil as soon as he loses his job and will be considered as an illegal immigrant.
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•  During the meeting due to be held today with their French counterparts, the Algerian negotiators will decline any attempt to reconsider the provisions agreed upon in the 1968 treaty which grant special status to the Algerian immigrants in terms of employment and settlement, which is not the case for the other immigrants outside the European Community.
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• The Algerian party will base its arguments on two basic principles: the first one consists in saying that the problem of immigration was the outcome of historical events and Algeria was not responsible for. The second is that the European and International treaties on human rights gives priority for the individuals to leave with their families.
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