French lawmakers approved a hotly contested immigration bill on Tuesday, with both houses of parliament giving the go-ahead to a legislative overhaul that is much tougher than the government’s initial text: after heavy concessions to the right, severely curtails immigrants’ rights to welfare benefits and family reunification.
The tougher rules reflect a growing shift towards right-wing and far-right politics in Europe and have caused glaring divisions even within French President Emmanuel Macron’s troops.
The bill, which had 349 lawmakers vote in favour, including all 88 far-right MPs and 186 against, had faced significant challenges from conservative, far-right and left-wing parties since it was first tabled for debate in October.
It created a parliamentary conundrum many observers described as one of the most significant political crises in modern French political history.
On the one hand, right-wing and far-right forces complained that the government’s initial text was too soft on repressive measures while allowing irregular workers too easy access to temporary work visas.
On the other hand, left-wing parties warned that the bill presented an even more significant burden on immigrants, making their administrative rights more complicated and lengthy than ever before.
However, after a year of political dithering, the political crisis unfolded in three parts before the bill was adopted. Indeed, after the Senate passed a stricter version of the bill in mid-November that the National Assembly later rejected, it was eventually adopted in the National Assembly after behind-closed-doors meetings on Tuesday.
Under the adopted legislation, access to citizenship, rights to social benefits and family reunification procedures have all been severely curtailed and their scope limited. Work visas for irregular migrants, which were initially to be issued automatically if migrants could prove they had stable – albeit undeclared – employment, will now be issued on a case-by-case basis. Restrictions have also been imposed on foreigners wishing to study in France.
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose Renaissance party is now short of an outright majority in the lower house of parliament, tried to strike a deal with the conservatives to secure their votes – but is now being criticised for giving in to their demands.
Civil society organisations have openly condemned the text as very harsh on immigration, discriminatory against migrants and with a far-right principle of ‘national preference’ at its core.
The bill as it is now approved “is far from the constitutional reform that is really necessary to control immigration […] but it speaks of an undeniable ideological victory for the [far-right] Rassemblement National,” far-right leader Marine Le Pen of Rassemblement National wrote on X.
In a rare sign of protest, 37 pro-Macron MPs voted against the bill or abstained, while all conservative and far-right MPs voted in favour. All left-wing MPs voted against it.
Six ministers, including Transport Minister Clément Beaune, Industry Minister Roland Lescure and Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau, threatened to resign if the bill was passed.
At the time of writing, only Rousseau had formally tendered his resignation.
(Théo Bourgery-Gonse | Euractiv France)
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