Lthe new law “to control immigration, improve integration” is not a text “fascist” Or “racist” as has been said here and there. However, it is undeniably restrictive in the sense that it complicates, renders uncertain, or even eliminates fundamental rights.
Of course, if we compare it with the legal arsenal in matters of immigration and asylum of a certain number of European Union (EU) countries, it will not be difficult to find “worse” than France . It was Hungary that built a fence almost 4 meters high on its border with Serbia to oppose the passage of migrants in the Balkans.
While the National Assembly voted on the law relating to immigration on December 19, 2023, the representatives of the twenty-seven EU member states reached an agreement the next day on the future migration pact.
Vital sum
But what appears to border on caricature on the part of our politicians and our legislators is the almost surreal, not to say obscene, bargaining over state medical aid (AME). Why consider the AME as a “legislative rider” [un amendement dépourvu de lien, même indirect, avec le texte de loi examiné] ? Why are the health issues of migrants detached from the health issues linked to the living conditions of the most precarious sections of the working classes?
The World Health Organization states that health issues are not necessarily characterized by the absence of disease or infirmity. For this institution, health represents “one of the fundamental rights of every human being, whatever their race, religion, political opinions, economic or social condition”. We can talk about “migrant health”. But if we want to be even a little rigorous, we should talk about inequalities in the areas of public health and occupational health. It is enough to take a single example often cited during the Covid-19 pandemic: that of “delivery people”.
Large cities like Paris, in 2021, and Bordeaux, in February 2023, have made delivery platforms available to these ultra-precarious workers in support locations called “Maisons des delivereurs”. Médecins du monde and the Maison des delivereurs in Bordeaux have alerted “the brutal deaths, the physical and psychological suffering of the delivery men”.
How many are losing their lives at “work”? How many are injured when falling from their means of transport? No one knows. And for good reason, it is not employees, but “self-employed” people not covered by the work accidents and occupational diseases branch, who disappear from the statistics. They are generally under 30 years old and most often do not have a residence permit. “Clandestines” who deliver deputies, elected officials, senior officials, families, etc.
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