Karen Maginnis's List: Background for Chasse-Croise

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• France, unlike Germany, has traditionally considered itself an immigration country. For the last 25 years, immigrants have comprised just above 7% of France's population of 58 million. Like the U.S., France has seen a shift in the demographics of its immigrants -- African and Muslim arrivals from France's former colonies have increased, in some cases even beyond the level of European and Christian immigration flows. (Insert table B.3.)

   

  In 1998, the largest foreign-born groups were from Portugal (600,000), Algeria (550,000) and Morocco (450,000). The rest of the foreign population consisted of 230,700 Italians, 200,000 Spaniards, 165,500 Tunisians, 160,500 Turks, 46,300 Poles and 51,700 from the former Yugoslavia. Immigrants from Asia made up 360,000 and immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 1.4 million people.
• In January 1999, France had 2.1 million working immigrants accounting for 8.1% of the working population. These immigrants are predominantly found in unskilled (manual and non-manual) employment and their wage level is comparatively low. Yet, data indicates that immigrants do run a higher risk of unemployment given equivalent age, sex and qualifications and that women still find it hard to enter the labor market.
• Between the end of World War II and 2000, approximately 10 million people immigrated to French shores, a number much greater than the influx of immigrants to Germany in the respective period. And yet, France has only 3.4 million foreigners, whereas Germany hosts well over 7 million foreigners. The reason for this is that French citizenship regulations traditionally rest on the jus soli principle, which entitles those born in France to the right of citizenship, resulting in the naturalization of descendants of France's foreign-born population.
• In 1988, the Socialist President Mitterand pursued a "grand bargain" of stronger controls over immigrant inflows along with increased efforts to integrate current residents. In 1993, a coalition of Gaullists took over, again launching a more restrictive period of immigration policy, with increased police powers to deport foreigners, reduced opportunities for asylum seekers, and attempts to restrict naturalization. The Second Pasqua Law denied equal protection and due process to foreigners, reducing migrants' ability to appeal negative asylum decisions and increasing police jurisdiction in investigating and deporting illegal immigrants. August 1993 Conseil Constitutionel ruled certain provisions of 2nd Pasqua Law unconstitutional.
• In 1988, the Socialist President Mitterand pursued a "grand bargain" of stronger  controls over immigrant inflows along with increased efforts to integrate  current residents. In 1993, a coalition of Gaullists took over, again launching  a more restrictive period of immigration policy, with increased police powers to  deport foreigners, reduced opportunities for asylum seekers, and attempts to  restrict naturalization. The Second Pasqua Law denied equal protection and due  process to foreigners, reducing migrants' ability to appeal negative asylum  decisions and increasing police jurisdiction in investigating and deporting  illegal immigrants. August 1993 Conseil Constitutionel ruled certain provisions  of 2nd Pasqua Law unconstitutional.

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• Because of the Schengen Agreement and the Dublin Convention France added a new section to its Constitution by the Constitutional Act of 25 November 1993. This law provides that asylum applications submitted in France may not be considered if they fall within the reach of these agreements. For instance, when migrants entered another convention-state before arriving in France, the respective state is responsible for processing their asylum applications.

• Because of the Schengen Agreement and the Dublin Convention France added a  new section to its Constitution by the Constitutional Act of 25 November 1993.  This law provides that asylum applications submitted in France may not be  considered if they fall within the reach of these agreements. For instance, when  migrants entered another convention-state before arriving in France, the  respective state is responsible for processing their asylum applications.

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• Consequently, Mr. Jospin commissioned a report by the prominent political  scientist Patrick Weil to survey France's immigration structure and to establish  policy recommendations, especially, but not only, with respect to illegal  immigration. As a result, in 1998, France liberalized its citizenship law to  permit children born in France of foreign parents to become French citizens  automatically at age 18, provided the child has lived in France for five years.

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• France administers significantly fewer asylum applications than Germany. Between 1990 and 1996, asylum applications declined from about 55,000 to 17,000 in 1996, when Germany still had well above 140,000 applications to consider. Since then however, asylum applications increased again, by 20% in 1997 to 21,000 applications. Rejection rates for asylum applications are, in comparison to other European countries, relatively low at around 80% for most years.
• Like Germany, France introduced a law (No.96-625) which established holding zones in ports and airports for foreigners who arrive without authorization to enter France. Asylum seekers who are determined to have provided manifestly unfounded applications for asylum must leave the country.
• Like Germany, France introduced a law (No.96-625) which established holding  zones in ports and airports for foreigners who arrive without authorization to  enter France. Asylum seekers who are determined to have provided manifestly  unfounded applications for asylum must leave the country.

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• In 1998, France liberalized the entry of foreign information technology specialists. Any person with a computer science degree, who is offered at least a minimum income, receives an authorization to work for one year, which is renewable for 3 times. The family of such an IT-specialist can join after 1 year.

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• Patrick Weil
• “(Sarkozy's) obsession is to reduce the flow of immigrants coming legally from North Africa and Africa,” said Weil, a critic of the French president, “and to reverse what he sees as an unbalanced level of legal flow tied to family reunification.” As Sarkozy sees it, according to Weil, France is taking in the wrong immigrants from the wrong countries – people who reject assimilation.
• Sarkozy maintains his bias against the Africans, Weil said, “despite the fact that all the comparative studies that have been done show that France is very successful – much more so than other European countries – in the cultural integration of each group of migrants.”
• Weil noted that Sarkozy in recent speeches has even spelled out what he calls “the tragedy of Africa” – that the African man has “never really entered into history (nor) really launched himself into the future.” Rather, Sarkozy said, Africans live an existence where there is “never room for human endeavor nor for the idea of progress.”
• Nevertheless, Sarkozy has vowed to deport 25,000 illegal immigrants per year. And he wants to make immigration a top priority of the European Union when he takes over its presidency in July.
• Yet one of Sarkozy's most ambitious ideas could be his worst: national origin quotas to allow for the selection of immigrants from specific geographic areas so as to limit the number of immigrants from certain parts of the world (read: Africa).

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• , aimed at ensuring proper integration of the child: the child must reside in France when he reaches adulthood, and must also have spent at least 5 years in the country after the age of 11.
• many fully integrated young people found themselves excluded
• a republican identity card now allows a child born in France of foreign parents who have residency status to prove his/her identity more easily.

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• his plan to create a ministry of immigration and national identity,
• As interior minister, Sarkozy has introduced a crackdown on illegal immigration and on Sunday he said the defence of French identity should not be seen as a taboo subject.
• We have a gigantic problem with integration
• "I am saying that the immigrants who come here have to sign up to the national identity. Is that shocking?" he said.
• France has sometimes struggled to absorb the millions of migrants who have poured into the country since World War Two

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• received an order to get out of France within one month f
• He came to study law at the Aix en Provence law school in 1962, and he has been a practicing lawyer in Aix en Provence for the past 28 years. He has renewed the rental contract for his law offices for the past 19 years. Since 1980, every president of the bar has attested to his membership and practice. His passport has been renewed over the past 45 years. He has not been in hiding. Married to a Frenchwoman, he is the father of a French child who is now 21 years old. When the first law on the residency of foreigners was passed in 1974, he enquired about his status. The government administration answered that the law did not concern him. In 1989 he filed a request for naturalization which satisfied the prefecture’s investigations.
• It might also be that the prefecture is seeking to attack – in an unavowed, underhand way – a lawyer who has done his job as a defender of undocumented immigrants with a degree of success that the prefect cannot stomach. The case poses, once again, the question of a gridlocked law that says the nationals of “third-party countries” must not exercise their profession both in the country they have chosen to live in and in their native country.
• Even the Competence and Talent Card introduced by the Minister for Immigration does not provide for this kind of “co-development.” In the end, the public prosecutor requested the abandonment of the procedure on the grounds of respect for family and private life, and the hearing was adjourned pending the court’s decision. Abdoulaye Coulibaly said “I am very moved,” at the end of the hearing. “I am very moved by the solidarity expressed by the lawyers and the journalists ... I am truly happy at the solidarity and the effort that everyone has made to defend me. But I remain deeply wounded by this proceeding and, above all, I fear greatly for all those who, unlike me, do not enjoy such support and who are threatened with deportation every day, without any regard for their lives.”

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