AThen more than twenty-five laws concerning the regulation of asylum and immigration in France have been enacted over the past forty years, political debate rages around an uncertain new legislative project.
The relative presidential majority wishes to once again tighten the conditions for the reception, residence and regularization of immigrants while proposing a precarious integration through work in so-called “in tension” jobs.
The right puts forward a supposed threat of migratory submersion following a fantastic “call for air” and wants a “constitutional shield” which would allow the primacy of national law over European law in migration matters. The far right puts forward a supposed causal link between immigration, delinquency and terrorism, which has never been demonstrated.
Like several European countries, from Italy to Finland via Austria, Hungary, Denmark or Sweden, unlike Spain, where 700,000 citizens filed a law in December 2022 to the regularization of migrant workers, French public opinion is crossed by various currents of opinion, even though the fight against irregular immigration is only ranked twelfth among the concerns of the population, far behind health, income and education.
This logically leads the majority and the contenders for power to camp on increasingly extreme political and demagogic positions, far removed from the complex reality that our country is experiencing. The dramatic events that occurred in Annecy are a further illustration of this.
Although slowly and steadily growing, the number of new immigrants wishing to stay in our country remains at a relatively low level, one of the lowest compared to the population in Western Europe, as shown by the sociologist and demographer François Héran, in his book Immigration: the great denial (Threshold, 192 pages, 13.50 euros): “We magnify immigration the better to deny it. Yes, the immigrant population has increased in France since 2000, but less than in the rest of Europe. »
The distribution of asylum seekers on the national territory, very heterogeneous, tends to improve, under the effect of the policy of “directive orientation”, introduced into French law in 2015, likely to offer possibilities for accommodation, access to the school system and social integration that should theoretically slow down the formation of unworthy camps in large cities.
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