France divided over extending irregular workers’ rights ahead of Senate debate

France’s conservatives and the far right are fiercely opposed to the government’s immigration bill, which proposes to create an automatic work permit for irregular migrants working in labour-scarce sectors and is due to be debated in the Senate from Monday.

With asylum applications up 31% in 2022 compared to the previous year and a 58.9% increase in non-admission orders issued over the same period, the French government claims that new legal tools are needed to curb irregular migration.

While the bill was initially presented to other ministers in February 2023, its referral to parliament was repeatedly postponed – with the government fearing heavy criticism from opposition parties.

In its current form, the bill would raise the bar for irregular migrants to gain permission to stay in France – imposing new, stricter language requirements. All migrants applying for a permit would also have to swear to uphold the principles of the French Republic, or else their asylum claims could be rejected.

The bill also seeks to facilitate the deportation of migrants in an irregular situation “who pose a serious threat to public order” while increasing resources to combat smuggling networks, particularly in the Mediterranean.

“We must be humane and welcome, in particular those fleeing conflict, but we must also be rigorous […] we cannot welcome all the misery in the world,” President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview at the end of September.

At the wider EU level, it is estimated that 1.08 million people were illegally present in the EU in 2022, an increase of 59% compared to 2021, according to the European Commission, which in 2020 proposed the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, which is currently in the final stages of negotiation.

Combating labour shortage

However, the bill proposes to grant one-year work permits to migrants in irregular situations who work – unofficially – in sectors of the economy where there is a severe shortage of labour or who live in a “geographical area where there is a serious shortage of labour”. The proposal is causing quite a stir, leading to suspicions that it may not be passed in parliament.

Presented by the government as a necessary tool to limit economic risks linked to labour shortages, it has been largely rejected by conservative opposition parties, who claim this would create a “suction effect” and attract illegal immigration into the country.

But Senate leader for the conservative LR party, Bruno Retailleau, warned that such a measure must be deleted at once and that a more repressive stance against immigration must be adopted. He called to end the practice of giving free emergency medical care to migrants in irregular situations whose asylum claims are being processed.

Last May, the LR party executive leadership presented a “counter plan” to the government’s immigration bill, which called for a referendum on illegal immigration and created “the possibility of derogating from EU treaties […] when the fundamental interests of the nation are at stake”.

They have continuously threatened to vote against the government’s text and organise a no-confidence vote should the labour-shortage clause be adopted.

The far-right Rassemblement National party of Marine Le Pen also confirmed that it will be voting against the government’s bill, with Le Pen saying it “will not provide additional tools to expel all those who represent a danger in our country”.

On the other hand, left-wing parties, all assembled under the NUPES coalition – which has been on the brink of collapse in the past few weeks – want to increase the scope of the labour shortage clause and grant work permits to all irregular migrant workers with full-time contracts.

(Theo Bourgery-Gonse | Euractiv.fr)