To Sift Immigrants, These Are the Characteristics of the Good Guys and Bad Guys in a French Bill

Besieging immigrants and harassing foreigners in France is the most important feature of a new bill announced by the Paris government regarding the legal status of refugees, residents, and irregular workers.

Observers wonder about the real goals of the new French measure and whether it is a step to facilitate the professional integration of immigrant workers or a new mechanism to get rid of them, especially after the Maghreb countries rejected the decision to deport them from France.

 

Certain Conditions

On November 2, 2022, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt unveiled, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, the outlines of a bill on immigration.

The new bill includes a decision allowing the granting of a special residence permit for the professions required to settle the status of irregular immigrants on French territory working in sectors that suffer from a shortage of labor.

The French government, when revealing the main lines of the new immigration bill, praised the balance between an outstretched hand for immigrant workers and stricter deportations.

During the dialogue, the Interior Minister said: “We will be bad with the bad and good with the good.”

The bill on asylum and immigration is set to include a series of measures, including making the obligation to leave French territory more stringent.

The French government intends to administer a language test to irregular immigrants, who are wanted in professions stipulated in the bill, and to end public order reservations, which prevent the deportation of people who arrived 13 years ago in France, leaving it to the judge to decide whether they should stay or not.

The new bill comes after a crisis with Maghreb countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) that refused to receive immigrants that Paris decided to deport according to certain conditions, which led to France tightening the conditions for granting visas from 2021.

Commenting on the bill, the French newspaper Liberation, in an article published on November 3, 2022, criticized the policy of President Emmanuel Macron and his interior minister, accusing them of prejudging immigrants in an irregular situation or waiting for them to receive residence permits.

 

Selective Bill

In light of the government’s intention to present the new immigration bill to a vote in Parliament, it seems that the situation of immigrants and foreigners living in France will become more and more complicated.

The new bill is a step to facilitate the integration of immigrants, but in a selective and partial manner, said Rachid el-Madani, a researcher on immigration and a member of the European-Moroccan Observatory for immigration.

El-Madani explained to Al-Estiklal that “it would be a vocational integration through some jobs that are known specifically, such as hotel, construction, cleaning, and restaurants, among others.”

He pointed out that “the new project, even if it appears as politicians and those behind the law claim that it stems from a human dimension, the real background is pragmatic, even if it is portrayed in a human face.”

El-Madani stressed that “benefiting from this project will have little impact on all irregular immigrants.”

In the face of criticism of the new law, the former deputy mayor of the French municipality of Athis-Mons, Omar el-Mourabet, explained that “the project is still bill and has not yet been proposed legally.”

El-Mourabet considered, in an interview with Al-Estiklal, that “the government’s announcement of this bill is a test balloon to know the response of public opinion.”

He pointed out that “the government has received employers, especially in the relevant fields, such as construction, bakeries, and cleaning, to seek their opinions,” adding that “until now, it is unknown exactly what is in this bill.”

El-Mourabet stated that “the bill is in the process of thinking and collecting proposals, and then crystallization will come later before it is presented to Parliament, if it is proposed. Because the far-right accuses the government of carrying out a process of legal settlement of the immigrant file.”

He explained that “the real problem is the Republican Party’s opposition to the bill,” adding that “this right party is about to elect its president soon, and one of the two candidates is the far-right Eric Ciotti.”

“If we know that the government can fall at any time if the Republican party votes with censorship blocked, this means that the government does not want to enter into a confrontation with a party that exercises support and criticism at the same time,” el-Mourabet said.

He concluded that “this bill came to solve the problem of labor shortage in some fields, and it is a solution to the problem of immigrants, not a deception.”

El-Mourabet stated that “the economic problem is present in this bill above all, and this matter prompted the government to adopt a kind of political realism and get out of hypocrisy, because settling the situation also means additional income in the state treasury by paying social deductions and taxes.”

 

Apparent Reason

The new bill comes in a context in which the debate continues in France on the issue of immigration, especially after the crime of the child Lola at the hands of an immigrant of Algerian origin.

On October 14, 2022, the Paris authorities announced that the body of the French child, Lola, had been found in a bag in the north of the country, and an Algerian immigrant residing without documents was accused of killing her.

The political and legal analyst, Dr. Majid Bodan, believes that “the apparent reason for the escalation of the immigration file is the heinous crime of which Lola’s child was killed, but the issue is broader than murder.”

During his participation in a podcast on Radio Monte Carlo International (based in Paris) on November 5, 2022, Dr. Bodan confirmed that “the main reason for the escalation of discussion regarding this file is the crisis economic situation in France.”

He explained that “France suffers from a shortage of manpower in many institutions, noting that there is a need for economic institutions to open the door to receiving a larger number of immigrants, especially those without regular status.”

He considered that “the issue of the immigrant who committed a crime is on the side of an accident, while the real issue is that French and European societies are in great need of immigrants, and it is something that will always exist, so it must be accepted.”

Acceptance of this presence is the main focus, as there are several criticisms of France’s discriminatory policy in this file, so if you are Ukrainian, you will be greeted with flowers, but if you are an Arab or an African, you will find harassment and besieging, according to the comments of followers on the social media platforms.

 

Disposal Mechanism

Researcher and member of the European-Moroccan Observatory for immigration, Rachid el-Madani, considered that “racial discrimination existed before this bill, because it is fixed in French politics.”

El-Madani affirmed to Al-Estiklal that “the bill is a mechanism to get rid of immigrants.”

He enumerated the reasons for his point of view that “the discussion of this bill came after the murder of the French girl and the accused in the crime being an irregular immigrant of Algerian origin.”

El-Madani indicated that “this painful incident sparked a wide parliamentary and societal debate in France, especially on the side of the far-right.”

“Therefore, the bill came within the framework of a security approach to controlling French territory and knowing who there are irregular immigrants on it. After that, the immigrants will be sifted through this procedure within the framework of the legal settlement on the basis of studying each file separately, then granting the accepted temporary residence, and deporting the rest of the irregular immigrants,” he added.

He explained that “the seriousness of the bill is reflected in the reduction of legal impediments to deportation from 12 to 4 only, which raises a question about France’s breach of its European obligations within the framework of the right to move between the EU countries.”

El-Madani revealed that “the leaked data on the content of the bill is [like sugar-coating].”

He pointed out that “the aspect presented is to facilitate the integration of irregular immigrants (the good guys) who are not hostile to French values, but the other side is to expand the powers and legal capabilities before the government to expel and deport irregular immigrants (the bad guys) who are hostile to French values.”

El-Madani concluded that “the process of filing legal settlement request files is a smart process for security control in the field of immigration, which has become, according to several data, outside security control, as it has become known as a weakness in information.”