History of a concept. Even before the government’s project on immigration was known, the right and the far right sang a refrain that has accompanied all the controversies over immigration flows for twenty years: if France improves its reception conditions, it will create a formidable “call for air”. The presence of accommodation centres, access to allowances, reimbursement of medical care or the promise of regularization encourage, according to them, migrants to return to France: these generous policies “suck up the misery of the world”summarizes, in 2019, the philosopher Jérôme Lèbre in the review Lines.
Taken over in recent weeks by Eric Ciotti (Les Républicains, LR) or Jordan Bardella (Rassemblement national, RN), this “speech known from far-right mythology”, according to Jérôme Lèbre, imposed himself in the debate, including on the left, in the early 2000s, during the controversies over the camp of Sangatte (Pas-de-Calais). It is based on the idea that migrants behave like the rational and enlightened subjects of classical liberal theory: informed by the press, social networks and word-of-mouth, they weigh carefully, before leaving their country, the advantages and disadvantages of each destination in order to identify the most hospitable regions.
If this logic seems inspired by common sense, it in no way corresponds to the reality, and especially to the complexity, of migratory routes. The draft is a ” myth “observes, in 2021, the Convergences Migrations Institute, which brings together six hundred social science researchers from several institutions: there is nothing “substantiated by research”. International studies devoted to the determinants of migration show that there is, according to the institute, “no correlation” between the quality of reception policies and the orientation of migratory flows.
The so-called factors « push » – the political, economic, social or religious disturbances that encourage migrants to leave their country – are indeed much more powerful than the so-called factors « pull » – the attractiveness, real or imagined, of the countries of destination. “Studies show that it is much less the arrival conditions (often poor) that attract [que] the situation in the countries of departure, where the absence of hope, massive youth unemployment and sometimes also war and insecurity are mixed [qui poussent à partir]»analyzes the Convergences Migrations Institute.
You have 55.32% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.