Marine Le Pen is not wrong. The December 19 immigration law represents an ideological victory for her and her party. It in fact establishes a “national preference”, a central element for fifty years of the program of the National Front, which became the National Rally.
We wish to express our deep concern regarding this law and the deleterious effects of the discourse which accompanied its adoption and which continues to disturb public debate in France.
Source of wealth
We are immigrants, coming from all continents. Our itineraries are very diverse: some of us arrived in France as children, others as adults; some to follow parents, a wife, a husband; others to study or look for work; still others to escape politically or economically difficult situations in our countries of origin.
Some of us became French citizens; others don’t. We made efforts to learn the French language, to integrate into our work environments, into our neighborhoods and into our adoptive French families.
We can legitimately be proud of our integration, we who are French or have decided to live in France by choice. But our adoption of the French language, culture and citizenship in no way constitutes a rejection of our cultures of origin.
On the contrary, we want to pass on our languages and our cultural heritage to our children; we believe that our diverse knowledge and experiences enrich French culture. Immigration should not be seen only as a source of problems, but as a source of wealth.
The political discourse on immigration in France, as elsewhere in Europe, is not up to the challenges, because it is based on fear, and not on science. We claim to protect French jobs and their purchasing power, but no serious study suggests that immigration could have had a negative impact on the economy.
Europe welcomes very few refugees
On the contrary, in our aging societies, immigration plays an essential role in maintaining our economic vitality and in the solvency of our retirement system. In a globalized and connected world, French people from elsewhere have linguistic and cultural skills and knowledge essential to the influence of French culture and France’s involvement in the global economy.
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