More than 150 organizations, including the Associative Movement, are calling for citizen mobilization to denounce the law which calls into question fundamental republican principles.
On December 19, the Senate and the National Assembly adopted the immigration bill by majority. This adoption is in line with an unprecedented questioning of republican values. Establishment of migration quotas, conditioning of social assistance to five years of legal residence, conditionality of public development aid, tightening of the conditions of access to nationality, establishment of a deposit for foreign students are all red lines that are crossed. Ironically, the text goes so far as to condition obtaining a residence permit on respect for republican principles at a time when we are moving away from them.
Beyond drastically attacking the rights of foreigners, this law further complicates the work carried out by employees and volunteers of numerous associations and structures of the social and solidarity economy which intervene to help the most deprived. Thus, the law provides for restrictions on emergency accommodation for people who are subject to an obligation to leave the territory, further hindering the task for structures that fight against precariousness. It is not up to associations to endorse national preference!
Actors on the ground have always been a source of proposals to strengthen the integration of immigrants, a major issue for a society to reconcile and made more difficult by the law passed. Instead of using their expertise to provide concrete and useful solutions, parliamentarians have chosen to give in to the sirens of an extreme right – which today boasts of an “ideological victory” – even if it means putting into question because of fundamental republican principles.
Immigration irrigates and enriches France
The situation is no longer sustainable. Where we should fight xenophobia and populism, where we should show that immigration irrigates and enriches France, where we should seek to reconcile French men and women, this law only adds division. . It is part of a global context where every day we sound the alarm about the decline of our freedoms and the renunciation of our fundamental principles.
More than ever, it is becoming urgent to reinvest in politics and to oppose concrete solutions to reactionary speeches. Associations offer this possibility of translating political values into action, but they are not alone. All around us, there are spaces to mobilize. So, let’s be uncompromising and above all, let’s not resign ourselves to losing the cultural battle.
The tragedy of this law is that it continues to add division and authoritarianism where we should be working to bring together and consolidate our democracy. Let us have the courage to oppose the restriction of freedoms, a real citizen uprising. Let us have the courage that the majority of parliamentarians did not have on December 19.
Signatories: The associative movement, Claire Thoury, president, ATD Fourth World, Marie-Aleth Grard, president, Citizens & Justice, Marielle Thuau, president, CNAJEP, Arnaud Tiercelin, co-president, SOUTH coordination, Olivier Bruyeron, president, Emmaüs France, Antoine Sueur, president, ESS France, Jérôme Saddier, president, France, land of asylum, Najat Vallaud Belkacem, president, La Cimade, Henri Masson, president, The Régies Movement, Jacques Limouzin, president, League of Human Rights, Patrick Baudouin, president, Doctors of the World, Florence Rigal, president, National network of junior associations, Stéphane Alexandre, co-president, UNAT, Michelle Demessine, president, UNIOPSS, Daniel Goldberg, president. The list of all signatories.
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