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Thousands of people were marching in the streets near Montparnasse train station in southern Paris on a recent Sunday afternoon. They were holding signs proclaiming their opposition to the \u201cDarmanin law,\u201d named after France\u2019s interior minister. Other placards said, \u201cImmigration is not a problem \u2015 racism is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right at the front of the group, a megaphone in hand, was Ahmada Siby.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old Malian arrived in France almost five years ago. Benefiting from a legal loophole, he has been using other people\u2019s papers to work as a cleaner, a chambermaid and, lately, a dishwasher.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of us undocumented immigrants are using this method, but it means we are paying social insurance fees and taxes without benefitting from services such as regular public healthcare like French citizens,\u201d he told DW.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Emmanuel Macron\u2019s government treats us as if we were nothing, although we\u2019re doing all the dirty work \u2015 at construction sites, including the ones for the Paris Olympics next summer, in restaurants and as cleaners,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Siby and others have banded together to protest the bill, which France\u2019s government said is a compromise including left-wing and right-wing measures.<\/p>\n
The draft law is set to be discussed in the National Assembly, France\u2019s lower house of parliament, starting on Monday, December 11, 2023, and could enter into force early next year.<\/p>\n
The final version of the immigration bill still needs to be pinned down, but some details are already known.<\/p>\n
The new bill is likely to fast-track asylum procedures and shorten delays for appeals, make family reunifications more complicated and restrict the possibility of coming to France for medical treatment. Changes also include the option of deporting people who were younger than 13 when they came to France and deporting foreign parents whose children have French citizenship.<\/p>\n
Paris was planning to create a one-year green card for people working in sectors with a labor shortage. But as it stands now, the decisions on these one-year permits are left up to local authorities.<\/p>\n
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin brought the immigration reform bill into the Senate. But France\u2019s upper house of parliament, which has a centre-right majority, recently considerably toughened the draft. And the government is expected to keep some of these changes to get the bill through the National Assembly. Macron\u2019s Renaissance party and its allies don\u2019t have an absolute majority there and need the conservative Republicans\u2019 support.<\/p>\n
Since a recent terror attack by a Russian immigrant on French teacher Dominique Bernard in the northern town of Arras, the government presents the law mostly as a safeguard against unwanted immigration and terrorism. Migrants, refugees and aid organizations are worried the new rules could lead to more stigmatization and discrimination.<\/p>\n
Lisa Faron from Paris-based Cimade, an NGO providing support for refugees and migrants, is one of those who is deeply concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government had promised a balanced bill, and yet, the new rules will almost exclusively restrict immigrants\u2019 rights and make it more complicated for them to get legalized, which will result in even more undocumented migrants,\u201d she told DW.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrance has voted through many immigration bills, but it feels like we are passing a new threshold of toughness with this one \u2015 for example by making it easier to expel foreign parents of French children, which was beforehand only possible if they had committed serious crimes,\u201d Faron added.<\/p>\n
For Vincent Tiberj, professor for political sociology at University Sciences Po Bordeaux, the draft law is reflecting a general shift to the right in the political debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost French politicians are depicting immigrants as a burden and a threat. They completely forget that many migrants, also of later generations, are contributing a whole lot to our society,\u201d he told DW.<\/p>\n
The sociologist thinks mainstream politicians are out to grab right-wing votes. Far-right party Rassemblement National is predicted to come first in next June\u2019s European Parliament elections according to polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yet, parties such as Renaissance should know this strategy doesn\u2019t work \u2015 it only legitimizes far-right movements and helps them gain even more ground,\u201d Tiberj said.<\/p>\n
Alexis Izard, Renaissance parliamentarian for the department of Essonne just south of Paris, says the final bill will still be balanced.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, we need to expel about 4,000 illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, and that will be possible with this new law,\u201d he told DW, adding that deportation procedures would take one instead of two years after the changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we want to attract those who come here and work. This will be a highly efficient law,\u201d Izard said.<\/p>\n
Herve Le Bras, historian and demographer at the Paris-based School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences EHESS, begs to differ on that last point.<\/p>\n
He says none of the more than 100 other immigration laws since 1945 have been effective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bill is completely useless and will have practically no impact on the number of migrants coming in per year. It only gives politicians, from the far-right to the far-left, a platform to express their stance,\u201d he stated in an interview with DW.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the immigration figures under past governments, you\u2019ll see that they are uncorrelated to politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alain Fontaine, owner of the restaurant Le Mesturet in central Paris and head of France\u2019s Association of Restaurant Owners, is still hoping the initially planned one-year green card will be put back in and even extended.<\/p>\n
\u201cBars and restaurants won\u2019t be able to function without foreign workers who represent about a quarter of our work force,\u201d he told DW.<\/p>\n
Some 12 out of his own 27 employees are foreigners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need immigrants \u2015 also since our own youth prefer to work in the digital sector or jobs linked to the protection of the environment,\u201d he said. \u201cThey no longer want to do the tough jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malian immigrant Ahmada Siby doesn\u2019t think the automatic one-year green card, even if prolonged, would be the right way forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would enshrine modern slavery into law, as we would need to work in that one sector to keep it. You\u2019d still be at the boss\u2019s mercy,\u201d he said, sitting on his bed in a 15 square meter (161 square feet) room in the suburb of Montreuil east of Paris, a studio flat he\u2019s sharing with an uncle and a cousin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the government to legalize all of us, so that we can choose the job we\u2019d like to do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Then, Siby looked at pictures of himself five years ago, after he had reached Spain from Morocco on a small inflatable boat.<\/p>\n
He thinks of the crossing, which took almost a whole day, as \u201cthe most difficult moment in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone on board almost died.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you\u2019ve survived this, you don\u2019t just give up,\u201d Siby said. \u201cI\u2019m determined to fight for a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n