Louis of Raguenel
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3:28 p.m., January 21, 2022
The provisional figures for immigration in France for the year 2021 were published Thursday by the Ministry of the Interior. Contrasting results which fall badly for Emmanuel Macron, aware that the argument of the health crisis is fragile, and who plans to make new announcements in mid-February.
The Ministry of the Interior published Thursday the -provisional- results of the government’s migration policy in 2021. Figures that are not good compared to the objectives set by Emmanuel Macron himself. If no minister has spoken for the time being on the subject, we learn among other things that 52,000 migrants attempted to cross the Channel last year and that naturalizations (+94,000) increased by +50% in one year. . A contrasting result, even bad.
Afghan crisis, Brexit…
In detail, in 2021, due in particular to the Afghan crisis, the Ministry of the Interior identified 104,000 first asylum applications. An increase of 28.3% compared to 2020, a year which had seen a drop due to Covid-19.
Then, with regard to the first residence permits issued to foreigners, we find roughly the same figures as in 2019, which had moreover been deemed “bad” within the government. In 2021, therefore, more than 270,000 first residence permits were issued, i.e. the equivalent of the population of the city of Strasbourg. But important point all the same, the Ministry of the Interior insists on the effect of Brexit, which resulted in the issuance of 96,000 residence permits to British nationals. For their part, with 94,000 acquisitions, naturalizations increased by more than 50%.
New announcements from Macron on immigration
Finally, the deportations of foreigners increased by 8.2%, but they only represent 17,000 deportations actually carried out, or very few, namely half of the deportations of the year 2019, a year already considered bad.
These results are indeed bad for Emmanuel Macron, aware that the Covid argument is fragile. It is for this reason that he plans to make new announcements on immigration, still under discussion for the moment, before mid-February and his entry into the campaign.