– “Stressed professions”: end of “hypocrisy”
The proposal to create this new residence permit, which should make it possible to respond to the shortage of labor in certain trades, will be the subject of consultations “from November”, explained Thursday the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt , on Franceinfo.
This will include revising “for the beginning of 2023” the list of occupations in tension, created in 2008 and updated only once, in 2021.
“Revising the list more regularly” will be a condition for the success of the measure, observes Jean-Christophe Dumont, head of the migration division of the OECD, with AFP, especially in the context of an annual title. Because for the rest, “there are already work permits linked to this list”.
What “we are proposing is to put an end to a form of hypocrisy” and allow immigrant workers “to request their regularization and to obtain a residence permit in this context”, continued the Minister of Labour.
The measure also responds to an accounting logic, defended the Minister of Public Accounts and Budget Gabriel Attal, on Europe1: “Our public finances are losing between 5 and 6 billion euros due to hidden work” which concerns, “to a large extent party”, “foreigners who are not declared by the companies”.
– No massive regularization
“There is no hidden plan for naturalization or mass regularization. We are in something pragmatic, human and effective”, insisted on demining government spokesman Olivier Véran on BFMTV.
Because on the right and on the far right, the outcry was immediate, the patron saint of deputies RN Marine Le Pen judging for example that this residence permit project carried the risk of a “worsening of illegal immigration networks “.
Eric Ciotti, candidate for the LR presidency, saw in it “an extraordinarily dangerous message because it calls for air to immigration”.
It is rather a “breath of fresh air”, estimated Gabriel Attal, because “part of our economy is running today thanks to immigration”.
In any case, “it concerns between a few thousand and a few tens of thousands of people”, also tempered Olivier Dussopt.
“It’s really what you have to do, (be) careful that there is no draft”, also reacted on CNews the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
– Expulsions: “repressive” measures
Gérald Darmanin at the same time defended the repressive aspect of the measures, which constitute the bulk of the bill, providing in particular for an overhaul of the asylum system in the service of the efficiency of deportations, after the controversy over the murder of a young girl whose alleged perpetrator is subject to an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory).
“Of course there are still some (delinquent foreigners) on the territory, I am also fighting for the lifting of the legislative protections which prevent me from deporting them”, he declared, referring to the case of people who arrived in France before the age of 13. This concerns “4,000” people a year, he added.
“This repressive component gives xenophobic pledges to the right and the far right”, judged Jean-Albert Guidou, immigration specialist at the CGT.
“Essentially repressive measures, which will reduce the rights of foreigners, very far from the announced balance”, also denounced the director general of the association France land of asylum, Delphine Rouilleault.
– French exam: a “revolution”
Gérald Darmanin also detailed his “enormous revolution” for integration: “I propose that all foreigners who have a residence permit take a French exam”, he said, noting that “25%” of between them “do not speak French”.
“If they succeed, they stay in France (…), if they do not succeed, their title is taken away from them and they leave”, he summarized, estimating that 200,000 people already in France will have to pass this exam.
“We are swimming in the midst of a paradox”, further lamented Delphine Rouilleault, regretting that the government did not provide “the only appropriate reform” in terms of integration: learning French “as soon as you arrive in the territory”.
