France's new immigration law has not yet been enacted. The bill adopted by Parliament was referred to the Constitutional Council, which is due to rule on it on January 25. The decision is eagerly awaited because, according to the government itself, several provisions adopted by Parliament on December 29 could be unconstitutional. These include provisions that call into question jus soli birthright citizenship, make access to family reunification and social benefits harder, and introduce immigration quotas determined by Parliament. In the meantime, opponents of the law are trying to make their voices heard.

On Sunday, January 14, a demonstration calling for the withdrawal of the law was organized in around 30 cities following the call of "more than 400 organizations," including collectives of undocumented migrants, the Solidaires trade union, and parties such as La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left), Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV, environmentalist left), and the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA, far left).

Over 25,000 people marched in Paris, according to the organizers, as well as 2,500 in Marseille, according to the prefecture, almost as many in Lyon and Bordeaux, and another 1,600 demonstrators in Rennes and 500 in Strasbourg. "France cannot accept all the racist laws in the world," "Expel Darmanin," and "We are all children of immigrants" were just some of the slogans on the placards held up in the Paris march on Sunday.

'Ways to resist'

"This law criminalizes us all," criticized Aboubacar Dembele, a member of a group representing undocumented workers, at the Paris march. "It takes up the ideas of the far right."

"Social cohesion and living together are in danger," added Abdoulaye Sidibe, a member of the undocumented workers' group Gilets Noirs.

"I find this law extremely serious and brutal," said Laure Feldmann, a 49-year-old doctor who came with her 21-year-old daughter Elora. A member of Education Without Borders Network in the Jura, eastern France, where she lives, Feldmann was demonstrating in Paris to "make a difference." Even if "the future looks very bleak, there are plenty of ways to resist," she said. "In the Jura, we provide shelter and schooling, and we do what the state doesn't."

William Dufourcq, 46, manager of an emergency shelter in Paris, protested against "a law that undermines the right to asylum and complicates reception in France for very populist reasons." Not far away, Youssouf (who declined to give his full name), an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, came from Besançon and held up a placard that read, "Asylum flouted, freedom under threat."

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