The French authorities have announced their intention to adopt a new immigration law next year as the new right-wing government seeks to crack down on immigration.
“There will be a need for a new law,” government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told News Men on Monday.
France's government is taking a stricter stance on immigration and border control, reflecting the country's shift to the right after the recent legislative elections.
According to loc.gov the summer's elections resulted in a hung parliament, which has led to increased debate over immigration policies.
President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance bloc faced defeat in the European Parliament elections, prompting a snap parliamentary election .
Information says the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), or National Rally, made significant gains, scoring 31% in the European elections.
Marine Le Pen's party has continuously used migration as a key issue in its rise to mainstream politics, promoting an anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become increasingly normalized in France.
In January 2024, President Macron signed a new immigration law, Law No. 2024-42, to Control Immigration and Improve Integration, which was largely censured by the French Constitutional Council. The law aimed to tighten access to social benefits, impose restrictions on family reunification, and establish immigration quotas.
However, the Constitutional Council rejected several measures, citing procedural issues and unconstitutionality.
France's immigrant community is vast and heterogeneous, making up 10.3% of the population, with 48% of immigrants coming from Africa. Despite social mobility and economic integration, racial discrimination and hostility persist, with concerns over workplace discrimination and racial profiling.
Michel Barnier’s government hopes the bill will be submitted to parliament at the beginning of 2025.
In September, a Paris student was raped and murdered in a case that has further inflamed a French debate on migration after a Moroccan was named as the suspected attacker.
The government wants to extend the detention period for undocumented migrants deemed to be dangerous in order to better enforce expulsion orders.
One of the options under consideration is to increase the maximum period of detention from 90 to 210 days, which is now only possible for terrorist offences.
“We don’t rule out the possibility of considering other provisions”, said Bregeon, adding that there should be “no taboos when it comes to protecting the French.”
Last December, France already passed an immigration law.
The bill was hardened to gain the support of the far-right and right-wing MPs.
But the country’s highest constitutional authority censured most of the new amendments which were dropped before President Emmanuel Macron signed it into law.
The measures struck down by the Constitutional Council “will serve as a basis for the new immigration bill”, a government source told AFP. “Some of them could be modified and there will be additions.”
The most hardline member of the government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, has vowed to crack down on immigration. He has stirred controversy just days into the job, saying that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred”.
Retailleau, who previously headed the Republicans party in the Senate, was seen as the driving force behind the tough legislation last year.
He wants to reinstate the offense of illegal residence, among other measures.
Gabriel Attal, Barnier’s predecessor and now leader in parliament of Macron’s Renaissance party, said on Monday that a new law on immigration did not seem a “total priority.”
“Adopting a law for the sake of a law makes no sense,” he told broadcaster France inter.
He said “the priority is to act so that the state can truly control who enters and leaves” France.
