Immigration policy... pre-reflection

REFLECTIONS - immigration in the metropole

Hard to believe, I only have one week left at l’ASSFAM. I’m quite sad. The relationships I’ve formed with my chères colleagues these last 3 months are so dear to me. I’ve learned a great deal from them. I also got a real peek in to the hidden demographic of Paris… struggling peoples coming from all over the world, making huge sacrifices to come to France and then trying to legitimize their abysmal existence.

I’ve decided to reflect upon my activities, the things I saw, the stories I heard in the form of a short paper. This is why I’m starting with an explanation of the cases we deal with concerning French immigration legislation. Afterwards, I’ll more easily be able to explain the specificities of situations we encountered. First important fact,

FRANCE CLOSED ITS BORDERS IN 1974, OFFICIALLY ENDING IMMIGRATION. Since, non-French persons are only allowed to come and live in France if they meet very specific criteria. The most common procedure is family reunification.

CASE: LEGALIZATION OF SANS PAPIERS

Everyday we field dozens of phone calls and have appointments with people asking for help with a myriad of problems. Many want to know exactly what they need to do to get legal status. In a lot of instances, people are sent to us by someone who knows they have a chance of getting papers, but only if their request is filed with impeccable credentials. There are but a few ways in, and the conditions are strict. For example, if an immigrant is asking for a residence permit under the pretext of medical necessity, he must justify that his illness is severe enough that he needs regular check-ups and that medical care in his home country is not suitable to treat him. In order for him to have a chance, he needs a medical certificate signed from a doctor working in the government sector dealing with immigrants to validate his situation.

Another example, a young Hatian woman has a baby with another Haitian “sans papier”. They have been living in France clandestinely for 6 years. A recent French law allows for the possibility of a residence permit if you can prove 5 years of stable, communal family life. The only way the request will be taken seriously is if all the documents proving presence on French territory are very official. You have to have at least 2 proofs a year (one for the first and second part of the year). If you are not part of a family but have been present on the French territory for 10 or more straight years, and can prove it well, you can also file a request for papers. These are just the base conditions for a very long, complicated procedure that must be executed with the utmost care. In short, it is very, very difficult to get a positive decision from the Prefecture (administrative body ruling over decision to give resident permits). A large percent of the cases we deal with at L’ASSFAM are appeals made after an immigrant received a refusal or was given expulsion papers.

There are a couple other special cases we often confront. First, there are those immigrants trying to get refugee status. This requires them to prove the argument that their life is in danger in their home country usually due to their political position. Second, immigrants who can show their baby has a French parent (either mother or father), making the child necessarily French, automatically fall under the category of ‘parent of a French child’. Parents of French children are systematically given permission to live in France. This is probably the most exploited of all the conditions which allow one legal status. Great numbers of women from sub-Saharan Africa, especially Cote-D’Ivoire, come to France with a tourist Visa, get pregnant and after the baby is born find a French man to claim the child as his. The law requires only a signed acknowledgement the child is yours. She can then begin the process of legalization and after, tap in to the social system which will allocate to her a nice monthly sum. But, it isn’t all that simple. Women must put themselves in compromising situations in order to first get pregnant and then bribe a French person to claim the baby, even in cases when it is really his. Of course, it doesn't always work this way, but I must say I was astonished by the number of women who had a French baby, the father nowhere to be found.


Those who have the greatest chance of receiving permission to live in France are those who do it through the Regroupement Familiale (family reunification) procedure. If an immigrant has had a residence permit for at least 2 years and meets other specific requirements, they can request their children (under 18) and/or spouse to join them in France. Lodging must be large enough to house the newcomers comfortably and they must make a minimal monthly salary of approx. $11,000. French Nationals can of course marry a foreigner and their spouse will receive a green card. French nationals can also request to have their non-French parents join them in France.

In the mix of a lot of legislative counsel, we piece together the diverse migratory stories of the many people that pass by our small office. Days I sit in for 4-6 appointments fill my heart with heavy emotion. Life as an immigrant can be tough, life as a “sanspapier” is much tougher. I have a thick notebook full of all the different situations I’ve encountered while at l’ASSFAM.

In an upcoming blog, I will share some of these stories with you. I’ll also bring up questions they made me ask myself… for example, why the heck do people come to France, especially Paris, if life is so difficult? No housing. No jobs. No money. Overcrowded schools. Run-down public spaces. Is France really pictured as an “El Dorado” in the mind of millions of people to its south and east? Is there such a thing as an over-saturation of immigrants causing a society to fall in to disequilibrium? What are the most durable and efficient ways to reduce the level of social malaise plaguing immigrant-ethnic dense communities? My attempt to tackle these questions (and more) in blogs to come… hopefully in the not so distant future!