France passes controversial bill to toughen immigration rules despite Macron party rebellion

The French parliament passed on Tuesday (Dec 19) a controversial immigration bill backed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government despite facing a major rebellion from members of his own party. The bill which toughens rules for immigrants was passed with the support of the country’s far-right and while marking a policy victory for Macron, exposed cracks in his centrist majority.

What happened in the French parliament?

The bill which is said to be a compromise reached between Macron’s party and the conservative opposition passed the lower house without the ruling party needing the support of the far-right. Nonetheless, its backing has caused embarrassment in the presidential camp.

The bill passed further tightened immigration measures than the one initially proposed,which has sparked criticism from the left as they have accused the government of caving in to pressure from the far right.

While Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) has endorsed the strengthened bill, the key left-leaning members of Macron’s Renaissance Party and allied factions have said that they can no longer support it and some even threatened to resign.

However, since the bill has passed, none of those threats have immediately materialised.

What are the new measures?

The initial proposal by the Macron government would have made it simpler for migrants working in sectors that lack labour to get a residency permit, while also making it easier for them to expel illegal migrants.

However, in a bid to gain support from the conservatives, they agreed to water down some of the residency permit measures. The new bill which was passed would also delay migrants’ access to welfare benefits, including those for children and housing allowances by at least several years.

France has long prided itself on one of the most generous welfare systems in the world, and grants payments to foreign residents and helps them pay rent or care for their children with monthly contributions of a few hundred euros.

The far right, however, has recently argued that those measures should be reserved for French citizens only. Therefore, the recently passed bill effectively delays access to housing benefits for unemployed non-European Union migrants by at least five years.

The new bill also introduces a range of restrictions including migration quotas, making it more difficult for children of immigrants to become French citizens while saying that dual nationals who have been convicted for serious crimes against the police could lose French citizenship.

Macron to defend his contested migration bill

Macron's presidency could be threatened as voters who rallied behind him in 2017 and 2022 to stop Le Pen from winningmay not be happy with this new bill. Not to mention, most left-wing MPs either abstained or voted against it, saying that this new migration bill betrays promises made to fend off far-right ideas.

After the bill was passed, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne speaking in support of it, told parliament that the bill “will make our system more efficient because it will drastically simplify our procedures for processing asylum applications, (and) because it will make it possible to expel criminal or radicalised foreigners more quickly”.

Meanwhile, the French president will give an interview at 7:00 pm (local time) to ‘CàVous’, a political show on France 5 TV, said the France TV broadcaster.

(With inputs from agencies)