“Under the guise of simplifying procedures, the “asylum and immigration” bill contributes to stigmatizing migrants”

2023-06-19 19:30:16

For more than a year, France seems to have mobilized all the means necessary to welcome Ukrainians who fled the conflict. Accommodation, daily allowance, education, work: the measures allocated are numerous, and contrast with the care usually provided for migrants and asylum seekers.

At the same time, the government is preparing to step up its repressive policy against all other migrants and asylum seekers, within the framework of its “asylum and immigration” bill. In 2022, more than 108 million people worldwide have been forcibly displacedin conditions often just as violent as for the Ukrainians.

From March 2022, 80% of the French population was in favor of welcoming Ukrainian refugees. A surge of solidarity shared by political leaders: very quickly, the countries of the European Union granted nationals of Ukraine the ” temporary protection ».

This gives access to a list of rights that “classic” asylum seekers do not have, such as the right to work, access to health and education for children. A historic and unprecedented decision which we can only rejoice, because it demonstrates that dignified and decent reception conditions are possible. To guarantee this reception, France has also released twice the budget usually allocated to “classic” asylum seekers.

Barely Camouflaged Racism

These exceptional measures reflect an assumed preferential treatment granted to Ukrainians. A distinction maintained by the media treatment of the Ukrainian crisis, mobilizing the register of emotion, and a more positive vocabulary than that reserved for other exiled people (for example, “refugees”, instead of “migrants” or “illegals” ). This difference in perception reflects a certain hierarchy between exiled people, justified by proximity, or even by our supposed “similarities”. So many illegitimate motives, which are only the expression of a barely camouflaged racism.

A few days ago, the countries of the European Union have reached a first agreement on a reform of the European asylum system having the characteristic of tightening the filtering of requests, by relegating the processing of those “with the least chance of succeeding” at the borders. At the same time, the French government is preparing its future “asylum and immigration” bill, the twenty-second piece of legislation on this subject in thirty years. Under the guise of speeding up and simplifying procedures, the text degrades the administrative guarantees for migrants, and contributes to criminalizing and stigmatizing them.

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