The French immigration bill, presented in November 2022 and still not voted on, is hurting the government in its search for a parliamentary majority. It could also expose old divisions on the left regarding immigration, between the advocates of a universalist approach, who call for the regularization of all undocumented migrants, and those who, claiming a form of realism, accept that it should be limited.
On September 11, an open letter signed by some 30 members of Parliament ranging from the left wing of the presidential party to the Parti Communiste (PCF), via the MoDem party (centrist), the Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-Mer et Territoires group (LIOT, an opposition group of centrists and independents), the Parti Socialiste (PS, left-wing) and Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV, France's green party), called for the regularization of undocumented workers in shortage occupations, as provided for in Article 3 of the bill in question. It is a strategy of embodying a broad coalition, with the aim of counterbalancing pressure from Les Republicains (LR, conservative) for removing the measure from the text.
"What unites the left is the idea of welcoming people," explained Pascal Brice, president of the Fédération des Acteurs de la Solidarité (a French federation for shelter and social rehabilitation associations), the organization behind the bill. "The question is whether such a welcome should be unlimited. The open letter marks the recognition, by a broad spectrum of people on the left, of the need for a controlled and organized welcome. Realistically, given the state of public opinion, we know we can make progress on the labor issue."
In recent years, the left's discourse on immigration has become inaudible. On the one hand, it has suffered the effects of the Les Republicains (LR) right and the far right's omnipresence on the subject, which has gone hand-in-hand with a radicalization of its proposals, polarized around identity and security rhetoric.
On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron has taken up the "firmness and humanity" mantra, espoused by all Socialist governments, from former French presidents François Mitterrand to François Hollande to former prime minister Lionel Jospin – who declared, in his general policy speech in 1997, "France must define a firm and dignified immigration policy, without relinquishing its values, without compromising its social balance." Today, the majority of the French population is asserting this "simultaneous" approach to immigration. On Sunday, September 24, the president quoted Michel Rocard, President Mitterrand's PM, who said in 1989 that "we cannot house all of the world's misery."
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