Michel Barnier, Europe's former chief Brexit negotiator who is now running for French presidency, claimed on October 20 that the country was badly divided, and accused President Emmanuel Macron of being insensitive to citizens' daily concerns.
France frequently distinguishes between EU and non-EU immigrants. Even if EU citizens are counted as 'étrangers' in official statistics, the term étrangers, translated simply as foreigners, is used in political discourse to refer to those from outside the EU who do not benefit from the EU freedom of movement. Some in the anglophone world interpreted Barnier's political platform of tight immigration controls as a hint that he no longer believes in the European freedom of movement.
Barnier is embroiled in a heated contest for the Les Republicains party nomination, which has exposed deep schisms inside the party, and diverted attention away from an electoral campaign that is heating up six months before polls. Euro-intelligence analysts wonder aloud how France, a member of the European Union's Schengen free movement zone, could implement such a ban without breaking EU law.
"When the foundations are fragile, when they move, you cannot build on top," Barnier told reporters. "Our country's base is weak: our unity is fragile, our togetherness is in question," Barnier said.
Barnier claimed that out-of-control immigration was eroding France's sense of identity, a plea to voters on the political right's conservative fringes, as he looks to challenge the extreme right. Immigration looks set to be a crucial issue within the campaign.
But, what is the actual truth of the immigration picture?
A closer look
As of 2020, 6.8 million immigrants live in France, according to French national statistics body Insee. While statistics can be interpreted in multiple ways, it is essential to look at the larger picture—numbers as well as the consequences of immigration for France as a whole.
Among the EU states, France does not require EU migrants to register for residency. So, immigration numbers cannot be deduced from the information on the number of residency permits issued. Again, numbers on this front may not be accurate, but there are estimated to be 2,50,000 immigrants without papers reportedly living in France, with several of them delivering food parcels or employed in construction. This number includes asylum seekers who have overstayed visas, or failed to regularise their immigration status within a deadline.
Despite the fact that the number of asylum requests has decreased as a result of the pandemic, France remained the third most popular destination for asylum seekers in Europe last year, trailing only Germany and Spain. According to Eurostat, 19.6 per cent of first-time applicants in the EU applied in France. Including the 11 per cent of those who were not applying for the first time, Germany received 1,22,015 asylum requests, followed by France with 93,475 and Spain with 88,540 in 2020. Greece earned the fourth-highest number of applications, outnumbering the UK's 36,041 candidates. Of the 90,000 applications processed in 2020, protection was given to about 23.7 per cent. Also 2,61,000 migrants arrived in France in 2017. At the same time, 63,000 left, including students at the end of their courses, Insee reported.
Despite a large movement of migrants and asylum seekers towards Europe in 2015, migration to France did not increase. "2015 was definitely not a turning point for France," Virginie Guiraudon, a researcher at Sciences Po who specialises in European migration policy, told thelocal.fr. "In comparative terms, France did not welcome many people".
Migrants to France come mainly from its former colonies—in 2019, 41 per cent of migrants to France came from Africa, 32 per cent came from Europe and a large number of migrants came from Algeria and Tunisia. In 2020, France issued citizenship to immigrants who worked on the front lines during the pandemic, mainly in healthcare, retail, public transportation, and childcare.
Of the 2,77,406 first-time residence cards issued in 2019, only 39,000 had migrated for economic reasons. Mathieu Ichou, Head of the International Migration and Minorities research unit at the French Institute for Demographic Studies, told thelocal.fr, "On average, immigrants in France have higher levels of education than those who stayed in their country of origin.”
Ekrame Boubtane, an economist specialised in international migration, says, 62 per cent of immigrants who came to France in 2019 were aged between 18 and 34, an age profile that makes a more positive contribution to public finances in a country with an ageing population where a significant amount of spending occurs on health and pensions.
