2023-11-11 11:26:40
It has been a long and sometimes eventful week at the Luxembourg Palace. Since November 6, the immigration bill, defended by the Minister of the Interior, has been in the hands of senators. If the solemn vote will not take place until next Tuesday, the adjustments have already been adopted over the last few days – and nights. And the passage of the project through the upper house led to a toughening which is far from displeasing Gérald Darmanin.
“The senators have enriched the text, which takes up the major balances that we had established,” welcomed the Ministry of the Interior this Friday, at the end of the debates. Place Beauvau, we also said we were “satisfied” that “compromises on almost everything” had been found in a week by the Senate, mainly on the right. “The Assembly will do its job,” we still promise, while the government only has a relative majority and the left has every intention of rebalancing the text, after major changes.
Transformation of section 3
It was one of the flagship articles, but its modification is not a surprise as the right, the majority in the Senate, had shown its opposition. Article 3, which was to allow the granting of a “full right” residence permit to undocumented workers in sectors with labor shortages, was deleted to be replaced by a tougher version.
Now article 4 bis, it provides that undocumented workers working in shortage occupations will be able to obtain a one-year residence permit “exceptionally”. The procedure, at the hands of the prefects, is accompanied by multiple conditions, such as having worked twelve months over the last two years or respecting the “values of the Republic”. One idea is still retained: workers will be able to submit a request for regularization themselves, without obtaining approval from their employer, who does not always have an interest in this.
Article 4, which provided for authorization to work upon submission of an asylum application for foreigners from certain countries, has been deleted.
The text provides, in the event of a serious threat to public order or state security, to remove most of the protections against expulsion enjoyed by certain immigrants (with the exception of minors), including those who arrived in France before the age of 13 or residing in the territory for more than twenty years.
These provisions, already wanted by the government, were tightened by the senatorial majority of the right and the center. They target people who have been convicted of crimes or offenses punishable by five years or more of imprisonment.
As the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin wished since the Arras attack in mid-October, the withdrawal of the residence permit of a person who “adhers to a radical jihadist ideology” is also permitted by the text, according to Beauvau . Furthermore, confinement in detention centers for minors under the age of 16 has been banned by senators.
In order to facilitate “the effective implementation of expulsion decisions”, the senators propose that development aid be conditional on the issuance by third countries of “consular passes” necessary for expulsions.
The senators decided to abolish state medical aid (AME), covering the health costs of people in an irregular situation, in favor of “emergency medical aid”, focused on “serious illnesses”, pregnancy-related care or even regulatory vaccinations.
This change in size is causing the medical profession to jump. A complaint was even filed before the Order of Physicians for violation of the Public Health Code against two LR senators, also doctors by profession, who voted to abolish the AME.
For the government, changes on this subject have “no place” in the immigration bill. “I do not want this to be in the text that will go to the National Assembly,” assured the Minister of the Interior this week.
Change of condition for allowances
Here again, the measure provoked numerous reactions, even if the vote on the amendment almost went unnoticed. If the senators’ version is adopted, foreigners will have to prove five years of residence to be able to benefit from allowances such as personalized housing assistance (APL) or family allowances, compared to six months currently.
The bill reviewed and corrected by the senators now plans to “tighten the criteria for family reunification”, in particular by strengthening the conditions of residence and resources of an applicant. They also want to put an end to the automaticity of land law allowing children born in France to foreign parents to obtain French nationality upon reaching the age of majority, establish “migratory quotas”, or even reestablish the offense of illegal residence ( accompanied by a fine only).
In the integration aspect, the Senate set at level A2 the minimum level of French necessary to obtain the issue of a multi-year residence permit.
Reform of the asylum system
The government passed its structural reform of asylum with a dual objective: to speed up procedures and expel more quickly, while the rate of execution of OQTFs (obligations to leave French territory) fell to 6.9% in first half of 2022.
One of the measures adopted by the senators aims to issue an OQTF as soon as an asylum application is rejected at first instance, without waiting for a possible appeal. They have, moreover, simplified disputes even more than anticipated in the original text. Twelve procedures now make it possible to contest an expulsion: this has been divided by three.
Rare social advances
Some measures, which the senatorial right intended to remove, were reinstated during the week, such as the toughening of sanctions for employers of illegal labor and the obligation for employers to arrange working hours to certain employees to allow them to take French lessons.
Final success, Friday: the vote on an amendment aimed at granting a temporary residence permit to undocumented immigrants who file complaints against their owners abusing unworthy accommodation conditions, to fight against slumlords.
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