Mass Mobilization Against The New Immigration Bill in France

The immigration law presented by the French government and supported by the right-wing “Les Republicains” party is facing harsh criticism from broad political and social parties, which did not hesitate to demand its withdrawal, due to what those who reject it consider an “accumulation” of repressive measures against immigrants, who constitute an important bloc in French society.

The immigration bill that the Senate (the upper chamber of Parliament) began studying last week, amid an electric atmosphere between supporters and opponents, was the subject of a press conference by the French non-governmental organization, the “CIMADE”, which included 35 associations and groups of illegal immigrants.

Associations opposing this bill said the project constitutes “an accumulation of repressive and security measures,” according to statements by Fanélie Carrey-Conte, Secretary-General of the CIMADE. The association expressed concern about the government’s rush to establish rules that conflict with the values of the French Republic and are in conflict with the “ humanitarian principles,” they also called on MPs to reject the project.

Fanélie Carrey-Conte described the legal proposal as terrible, expressing its cruelty, and said: It is terrible that in France, the country of human rights, we only associate immigration issues with the assimilation of delinquent immigrants, with the words “repression”, “stigmatization”, “expulsion” and “imprisonment”. She asked, wondering: “Where is the welcome and solidarity? At what point are we going to talk about the tragedies at the borders, the people who will continue to die on migratory routes?” she added, believing that the draft law “does not rise to the level of the challenges.”

In a joint press release, the 35 organizations called on MPs “to reject this text and finally dare to adopt a policy that respects fundamental rights.” Concerns also come from certain amendments tabled before the resumption of examination of the text, repeatedly postponed for a year. Starting with those of the government, some of which provide for the “detention of asylum seekers” or even a “limitation of family reunification”, lamented Delphine Rouilleault, general director of France Terre d’Asile (France Land of Asylum).

The amendments presented by the right in the Senate are aimed at expanding the list of opponents to this legal proposal. Certain central syndicates, associations and academics also asked Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Monday to remove the amendments which “call into question the rights of the soil” for children born in France to foreign parents. Amendments tabled by the senatorial right which represent a “setback that has gone largely unnoticed”, wrote in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister a collective of around sixty signatories, including the leaders of the Human Rights League, the CGT and the historian Benjamin Stora.

The immigration bill under study at the level of the French Senate, which was defended by the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, stipulates a set of measures aimed at facilitating the expulsion of foreigners responsible for disturbing public order, and an element of integration, especially for workers who are not legally resident, as well as reforming the asylum and detention system, placing restrictions on family reunification and dropping the right to acquire citizenship for those born on French soil. The most dangerous thing about it is that it gives the administration the first and last word in deporting immigrants, at the expense of the judicial authorities, contrary to what is currently done.

The upper house of parliament is dominated by conservatives who are opposed to giving legal status to workers who entered France illegally, arguing the move would create a “pull effect” that encourages more migrants to come to France.

Speaking on France Inter radio, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday rejected the conservatives’ claim and said the provision would benefit “people who’ve been on our territory for years, who are well integrated.”

The debate on the bill also is expected to be heated next month at the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, where Macron’s centrist alliance has the most seats but doesn’t have a majority. The bill would require the votes of conservative lawmakers to get through.

Dozens of left-wing lawmakers and human rights activists staged a demonstration Monday in front of the Senate.

To strengthen the opposition front, historian Benjamin Stora re-published an article by journalist Laurent Joffrin here on November 10, entitled, “Immigration: the parrot right”, which was previously published in “Le Journal.Info”, through his Facebook account, attacking the extreme right because of its anti-foreigner positions and demanding that immigrants be granted the right to work and reside.

The article’s introduction said; “Poor French right, reduced to slavishly repeating the speech of the National Rally… The Senate dominated by LR elected officials restricts land law, abolishes the regularization of undocumented immigrants in “jobs in tension” and transforms State Medical Aid (AME) into Emergency Medical Aid. Three measures intended to reduce the “draft” produced by provisions deemed too favourable to foreigners or their children, which no serious study has ever attested. Three measures, above all, contrary to common sense and the spirit of the Republic”.

Land law right is an ancestral tradition in France, which dates back to François I and which was ratified by all regimes – the Royalty, the Revolution, the Empire and finally the Republic. Hostile to the ethnic conception of the nation, considering that nationality does not derive only from blood, but also from the education of children raised by the Republic, the law provides that one automatically becomes French upon reaching majority if one is born in France. To restrict it is to assume that the children of foreigners are a priori suspects and that they must immediately demonstrate their attachment to the nation. Only one government had adopted this point of view: that of Marshal Pétain between 1940 and 1944″, the article continues.

“The regularization of undocumented workers who have held a job for several years comes from common sense: if they have integrated into the world of work while respecting social rules, it is because they are useful. Why keep them indefinitely in an uncertain status where they risk expulsion at any time when their only crime consists of contributing to the functioning of the French economy? Finally, reducing the care provided through the AME to emergency cases means leaving less serious pathologies without treatment and therefore ultimately increasing the number of emergencies. The measure is frankly xenophobic in its absurdity”, it added.

Laurent Joffrin concluded; “While the real problems – the control of entries, the non-application of the law on the obligations to leave French territory for those who do not meet the conditions of asylum, the insufficient integration of new arrivals and their poor distribution across the territory – are left in the shadows, in favour of measures contrary to the welcoming traditions of the Republic. The right-wing wants to defend French identity, as it says. It begins by seriously damaging it”.