FECL 17 (July/August 1993):

"IMMIGRATION ZERO": PASQUA'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION PACKAGE VOTED BY PARLIAMENT

With 480 against 88 votes the French National Assembly adopted a law on the entry and stay of foreigners, the last of three bills proposed by Interior Minister Pasqua in the framework of his harsh anti-immigration programme launched under the popular slogan "immigration zero". On 19 June, some 20.000 persons demonstrated in against the "Pasqua projects" in Paris.

Pasqua's anti-immigration package consisted of three pillars:

• the reform of the law on citizenship (code de la nationalité);
• the bill on identity checks (loi sur les contrôles d'identité);
• the bill on the entry and stay of foreigners in France (loi sur l'entrée et le séjour des étrangers en France.

The law on citizenship

The new law introduces a series of restrictions with regard to access to French citizenship:

• Foreign parents of childern born in France will no longer have the right to apply for French citizenship on behalf of their childern. So far foreigners often made use of this possibility in order to secure their own situation of residence, as the parent of a French child may not be expelled (This latter protection is suppressed for parents sentenced for drug trafficking).
• Childern born in France of foreign parents must manifest their will to become French. So far, in strict application of the principle of ius soli, citizen ship was granted automatically to this category at age 18.
• A six month prison sentence after age 18 will prevent any application.
• A foreigner marrying a French will have to waite two years before obtaining citizenship (half a year, according to previous legislation).
• Childern of Algerian parents born before Algerian independence will no longer automatically be French at birth. So far a child born in France was con sidered a French if one of its parents was born in France. All Algerians born before independence in 1962 were considered as born in France. With the new regulation, this principle will only apply, if the parent born in Algeria has resided in France for the last 5 years. Symbolically, this provision amounts to no longer considering pre-independence Algerians as French. According to the government, the amendment aims at preventing Algerian women from travelling to France for delivery for the mere sake of obtaining French citizenship for their child.
• Childern of parents from other former French colonies and born before independence will no longer be French at birth. This measure aims at childern of parents from the former French colonies in Africa.
• Youths with double citizenship will have to do military service in their country of residence.
• Decisions turning down an application for citizenship must be motivated.

Identity checks

So far, identity checks were authorised only in presence of circumstantial evidence linking the person concerned to an infraction. According to the new law, on order of the public prosecutor, any person can be checked by the police in places and within a period of time determined by the magistrate.

Checks on purely preventive grounds were prohibited under previous law. According to the new law, ID-checks may be carried out, "in order to prevent an encroachment on public order, namely an encroachment on the security of persons and property...whatever the behaviour [of the concerned] may be."

Critics of the new provisions say they will allow arbitrary checks of foreigners based merely on physical appearance and thus further encourage police racism.

Finally, the new law comprises "compensatory" regulations justified with the abolition of internal border controls by the Schengen Agreement. The entry into force of the Agreement has, however, been postponed sine die by France (see FECL No.16, p.1). Nonetheless the new law clearly refers to Schengen by stating, that after the entry into force of the Agreement, any person within 30 km reach of a border, or being found at a port, an airport or a bus or train station open to international traffic may be checked. The legal committee of the parliament further extended this possibility of control to all départements (districts) with maritime or terrestrial borders.

Entry and stay of foreigners

The law on the control of immigration and on conditions of entry, reception, and stay of foreigners in France aims at setting a limit to twhat the government views as the three main channels of immigration - family reunification, marriage, and asylum, - and at facilitating expulsions and deportations:

• Asylum applications will be more thoroughly "filtered" by the interior ministry. Thus the préfets (district governors named by the Interior Minister) can reject an application on the grounds of "deliberate fraud", or when the appli- cant has passed through another Schengen-member state on his way to France.
• Asylum applications presented at the border can be turned down without further consideration if they are considered as "manifestly unfounded" by the interior ministry. These new barriers will prevent certain asylum seekers from present ing an application to the OFPRA, the administration in charge of refugees.
• Family reunification will be granted only to applicants having resided regularly in France for two years and disposing of sufficient income (whereby expected family allowances are not taken into account).
• Social assistance will be suppressed for illegal residents. The total denial of access to medical care for illegal residents initially included in the Pasqua project was however dropped after protests by the former Minister of Human Rights, Claude Malhuret, and medical organisations pointing at possible negative effects of such a measure on public health.
• The residence permit card will be more difficult to obtain. the possibility of automatic renewal is limited. Poligamous foreigners will be denied residence permit, even retroactively and authorities may always deny a residence card on the grounds of a "threat to public order".
• Mayors will be authorised to suspend the celebration of a "suspect" marriage with a foreigner and demand further examination be the public prosecutor in case of suspicion of a marriage of convenience and the automatic right to long term residence of foreigners married with a French will be restricted.
• Foreigners awaiting deportation can be placed in a retention centre for up to 3 months, if they refuse to reveal their identity.
• The protection of long term resident foreigners from expulsion is reduced. Among others, a foreigner sentenced for drug trafficking may be expelled, even if his child is French.

The new laws must still be approved by the common session of the two parliamentary chambers and could be submitted to a decision of the Constitutional Council, before entering into force. Major ammendments are however not expected.