“The position of the LR party puts an end to the Republican consensus”

2023-05-28 10:00:07

Dor more than twenty years, there has been a consensus among the governing parties on the major orientations in terms of immigration and integration policy: the fight against illegal immigration at national and European borders, a framework for regularization procedures and refusal of any massive regularization, promotion of professional and student immigration, strengthening of integration by learning the French language and adherence to the values ​​of the Republic. The fate reserved for the so-called “Guéant” circular [abrogée le 31 mai 2012, un an après sa publication]which aimed to drastically reduce professional and student immigration, attests to the depth of this consensus.

In this context, the new bill on immigration aims to strengthen the existing tools in favor of this policy on which successive governments have agreed. It is in no way disruptive. Gold, the position of the Les Républicains (LR) party in favor of a referendum on immigration and on a constitutional amendment aimed at allowing France to no longer respect the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the field of immigration puts an end to this consensus. The parliamentary debate will not focus on the resources allocated to migration policy, but on the very purpose of this policy.

The objective of the LR party is to first introduce a quota policy. A policy envisaged by President Sarkozy, but the Mazeaud report “For a transparent, simple and united migration policy” had underlined its constitutional limits in 2008. Notwithstanding the constitutional question, the implementation of quotas is based on the postulate of a limit beyond which France would be threatened in its integrity and its identity, as well as on discrimination based on ethnic, denominational or geographical origin in connection with a prejudiced capacity for integration.

Also read the column: Article reserved for our subscribers Immigration: “It is urgent to restore reason and democratic debate in the treatment of migration issues”

However, since 1945, France has always considered that its identity was sufficiently robust to bring to fruition the integration of men and women of diverse origins and cultures and that a discriminatory policy was contrary to tradition and the values of the Republic. Immigration control is thus based on the conditions for issuing a visa or a residence permit, which allows a selection of foreigners authorized to enter France, without this selection being considered as discrimination.

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