The government is unveiling its concrete intentions. The Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, and that of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced in an interview with Le Monde published this Wednesday several measures contained in the new immigration bill which must be examined in Parliament at the beginning of 2023. Here are the main d ‘between them.
Immigrants threatened with deportation in the “wanted persons file”
Gérald Darmanin indicates in particular that the government intends to register immigrants threatened with expulsion in the “file of wanted persons”. “It is not a question of reestablishing the offense of illegal residence but of being able to observe that the person leaves as when, for example, they take a plane and thus to count all the departures of foreigners”, defends the Minister of the Interior.
Residence permit “job in tension”
“If an illegal alien says I want to work in a busy jobthe Minister of Labor proposes to create a residence permit job in tension to be defined,” says Gérald Darmanin. His government colleague Olivier Dussopt specifies that “the objective is that economic immigration remains a subsidiary way of meeting needs”. “The RN will not be able to do us the job stolen from the French because we are on positions which are already occupied by workers in an irregular situation precisely because they remain vacant”, defends the Minister of Labor.
Accelerate the application of OQTFs
According to official figures, less than 10% of the 125,000 obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) pronounced in 2020 have been executed. The government expects to achieve a much higher execution rate. To achieve this, “the possibility of organizing video hearings will be generalized and, if there is no appeal against the rejection of the asylum application by the Ofpra, this will be worth OQTF with the possibility of appeal within fifteen days”, announces in particular Gérald Darmanin.
Last week, the Minister of the Interior said he wanted to make the lives of foreigners subject to OQTF “impossible”. This controversy was rekindled after the savage murder of a 12-year-old girl, Lola, whose suspect is an Algerian national under the influence of an OQTF.
French exam
The government wishes to “condition multi-year residence permits to the success of a French exam”. “It will change a lot of things. Today, a quarter of foreigners who have residence permits understand and speak French extremely badly,” defends Gérald Darmanin. Olivier Dussopt, for his part, wishes to “put work back at the center of the game”. “And there is progress to be made since in the first half of the year, when the unemployment rate was at 7.5%, that of immigrant workers was at 13%”, he argues.
A text voted by the right?
Rebirth! and its allies having only a relative majority in the National Assembly, they will have to find allies to get the text passed. Several measures could speak to the ears of the right, at the risk of “steering” the left. “We are proposing a text which is, I think, interesting for all political forces. There is at the same time a notion of firmness, protection of borders, regulation of flows and national interest to prevail. And there’s a real balance with initiatives to be taken to facilitate regularisations. It’s up to us to convince,” says Olivier Dussopt, who says he is confident of achieving this.