In the hope of reaching a delicate consensus with the opposition on this ultra-sensitive subject, the government on Tuesday, December 6 praised the balance between expulsions and integration in its immigration bill, before a debate in the National Assembly. .

France must be able to "say who we want" and "who we do not want" to welcome, summarized Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne by opening the debate, considering that "zero immigration is neither desirable nor possible, no more realistic than unregulated immigration is".

"This text will be balanced", she promised, reaffirming her desire to combine "firmness" and "humanity" with this project which must be submitted in early 2023.

It includes measures aimed essentially at making deportation procedures more efficient, an equation that has plagued French migration policy for years and that the latest law of 2018 has not been able to resolve.

"We want the future text to extend the improvements to the asylum-immigration law" of 2018, also underlined the Prime Minister.

The government is presenting a series of tightening measures and a "structural" reform of the asylum system in the service of speeding up procedures, as well as some measures in favor of integration.

The large gap between the two key measures symbolizes the balance sought: on the one hand, the issuance of an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) as soon as an asylum application is rejected at first instance, on the other hand the creation of a residence permit for undocumented workers in "shortage jobs", which lack manpower.   

Residence permit with points

Within the majority, the deputy Marc Ferracci, member of the Renaissance immigration working group, defended before the debate the idea of ​​a “residence permit with points” for “qualified immigration”, on the Canadian model.

It is a question of "not being politically locked up by LR and RN on a purely quantitative debate".

This is the challenge of the exchanges, which will be followed by another debate in the Senate on December 13: to give pledges to all sensitivities, especially on the right, without emptying the text of its substance.

The Minister of the Interior must thus receive the president of the deputies LR Olivier Marleix on December 15, date from which the text can be sent to the Council of State.

"This text will once again be useless," swept Marine Le Pen on Tuesday during a press conference at the National Assembly.

"It will not advance the situation which is nevertheless catastrophic (...): immigration in our country is totally out of control", declared the leader of the National Rally deputies.

Like the far right, the right denounces a project that is not repressive enough, accusing the government in particular of wanting to introduce a wave of "massive regularizations", which represents a "red line", further threatened MP LR Pierre on Tuesday. -Henry Dumont. 

The government is ready to discuss the "criteria" of this residence permit, insisted Gérald Darmanin.

"How much seniority will it take on national soil? Should we put quotas?" He continued, saying he was "open" to adjustments.

"Too many rules"

Even before the debate, the National Assembly rejected on December 1 two LR bills on the expulsion of foreign offenders.

In this regard, the Ministry of the Interior says to concentrate "the effort on the perpetrators of disturbances to public order", with a "prioritization" of their expulsion, promised in particular since the murder in mid-October of Lola, 12 years old , by an Algerian national under an OQTF.

“Too many specifically French rules prevent the expulsion of foreign” criminals, lamented before the deputies Gérald Darmanin.

"We will propose to you" in this law "to no longer censor us and to leave it to the judge to measure whether private and family life and the right of residence are compatible with acts of serious delinquency", he claimed. .

The associations supporting the exiles, gathered Tuesday afternoon in front of the Palais-Bourbon, denounced a "hostile" text and called for "an end to the discourse linking immigration and delinquency".

They deplored an "umpteenth bill", the 29th on asylum and immigration since 1980, placed according to Fanélie Carrey-Conte, of Cimade, under the sign of "obsession around OQTFs". 

With AFP

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app