French left unites against national immigration bill, EU migration pact

Over 380 Green Party members called for overhauling the French government’s immigration bill and the EU migration pact, echoing other left-wing forces in the country, in an op-ed published on Monday.

As interinstitutional negotiations over the EU’s Asylum and Migration Pact are ending, the French government is pushing its immigration bill. While the latter seeks to reinforce police and border control forces in the fight against irregular migration, it also aims to give irregular workers access to temporary work visas.

But backlash has come from all sides, as conservative, far-right and left parties rejected the bill last week in a surprise vote that resulted in no debate in the plenary.

Fast forward a week, and the government is still pushing for the text to be adopted through a specific behind-closed-doors negotiation procedure which resembles EU trilogue talks between the Commission, Parliament and the Council – raising concerns the final text may take a more hardline stance than what the government initially presented.

“This immigration bill is part of an effort to criminalise and stigmatise migrants, supported by right-wing and centre [elected officials] at national and European levels,” Green party members wrote in an op-ed published in Libération on Monday.

“The Asylum and Migration Pact […], far from resolving Dublin Regulation shortcomings, is nothing more than an [addition] of repressive and discriminatory measures aimed at locking up [and] expelling people who flee their country,” they added.

The Greens are joining a call that is increasingly being joined by French left-wing forces who oppose an immigration bill they say is too repressive, flirts with ideas stemming from Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) and resembles the EU proposal too closely.

The text hardens access to urgent medical help for irregular migrants, curbs conditions under which family reunification is made possible, and reduces state financial support for irregular migrants.

The scope of the government’s proposal to grant irregular migrants who already work in areas plagued by labour shortages an automatic one-year work visa has been drastically reduced to a case-by-case approach.

However, Green, far-left La France Insoumise and Communist MPs have paralleled the government’s current draft bill and RN’s long-lasting views favouring discriminatory “national preference” policies.

“In Brussels, the majority of member states and MEPs from the centre and the right are defending the use of European funds to build walls and barriers on the external borders of the EU”, the Green party members said in the op-ed, adding that the same philosophy infuses the French debate.

Instead, left-wing parties “call on MPs and ministers to clarify their position and reaffirm their commitment to a Europe that is fair, inclusive and respectful of human rights”.

Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, which lacks an absolute majority in parliament and is bound to strike a legislative deal with conservative MPs, is making the case that the bill is key to tackling irregular migrations, particularly if those crossing the border have committed offences.

“75% of French people want a more repressive legislation,” Paul Midy, a Renaissance MP, said on Monday.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who is in charge of the file, has also claimed that the bill is necessary for the “protection of all French people”.

(Theo Bourgery-Gonse | Euractiv.fr)

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