Unlikely alliance emerges in France in support of legalising irregular work

A faction of French President Emmanuel Macron’s parliamentary majority and several leading left-wing figures are rallying behind a campaign to regularise the status of undocumented immigrant workers in understaffed professions.

Read the original French story here.

After last year’s parliamentary election produced no clear majority, parties supporting the president’s camp in parliament were forced to cobble together alliances with opposition parties from the right and left to pass legislation.

Some 50 laws have been passed since then, though on several occasions the government has been forced to bypass parliament by invoking Article 49.3 of the Constitution, as in the case of the budget and pension reform.

However, the forthcoming immigration bill, which will be debated in the Senate from the beginning of November, will make the battle even more delicate.

The government, led by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, is still trying to woo the right-wing Les Républicains (LR), which dominates the Senate and has a decisive influence on the National Assembly.

However, LR members are strongly opposed to the regularisation of workers in short-staffed occupations, which Darmanin pledged to do more than a year ago.

However, while Darmanin said he remained in favour of regularising the status of these workers, he may be tempted to exclude the measure from the bill and pass it by decree in order to secure the backing for the law from the right.

But giving in to the demands of the right does not sit well with the left wing of the presidential majority, which has now joined forces with NUPES, a left-wing alliance founded by Jean Luc Mélenchon.

According to them, regularising the status of working migrants is something that must be enshrined in law.

The initiative is led by Sacha Houlié, Renaissance MP and president of the Law Commission of the National Assembly, Communist leader Fabien Roussel, Socialist senator Marie-Pierre de la Gontrie, and senator Mélanie Vogel, co-president of the European Greens, who published a joint opinion piece in Libération on Tuesday (12 September).

The MPs from Horizon, who represent the right-wing camp of the presidential majority, as well as the radical left group La France Insoumise, are not part of the initiative.

French senate president wants constitutional reform, referendum on immigration

Real immigration policy cannot be achieved without reform of the French Constitution, President of the French Senate Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains) told Le Parisien on Saturday.

While the government is preparing a law on immigration, the right-wing opposition is keeping up …

Three measures

The group is asking the government to take three measures “to give foreigners access to work”.

First, they are asking the government to regularise the status of undocumented foreign nationals already working “in sectors in short supply,” such as construction, nursing, public health and care services, for whom a residence permit should be granted.

“These undocumented workers contribute to the economy and social life of our country. Without them, these sectors and whole areas of our country could not function,” they point out.

They also want to “restore the right to work to asylum seekers”, who are currently subject to “a six-month waiting period before they can apply for a work permit,” a rule that, according to the MPs, is detrimental to their autonomy and their integration.

Thirdly, they want the government to tackle the backlog of applications because of which “new undocumented migrants are being produced every day” and are calling for “a maximum time limit to be set for the administration to grant an appointment”.

The move is favoured by businesses, which are the first to be affected by labour market tensions.

Houlié defended the need to “get away from hypocrisy” on France Inter on Tuesday.

According to him, some right-wing MPs from LR are sneaking in requests for regularisation in their constituencies while they oppose it in the national parliament in Paris.

A possible ‘49.3’

The bill, presented by Darmanin, will be examined by the Senate from the beginning of November before being passed on to the National Assembly in early 2024.

Making it even harder for the bill to pass through standard parliament procedure is the fact that the right is also demanding that France be allowed to derogate from EU migration laws ‐ a move Darmanin described as a “migratory Frexit” in May.

To avoid the bill being adopted without a vote, the government needs to secure the abstention of left-wing MPs – who will not vote in favour because of the tougher deportation policy – and the support of a few right-wing MPs and independents, while keeping the presidential majority intact.

[Edited by Benjamin Fox/Zoran Radosavljevic]