Power
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Questionnaire
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Summary inspired by article Immigration in France
by Emmanuel Peignard
who is a sociologist and researcher at the Université de Bourgogne.
http://www.ambafrance-us.org/atoz/immigration.asp
According to a 1990 census, immigrants represent around 6% of the population
totaling 3.5 million people. Among them, 1.4 million come from the European
Union. France has traditionally been a country of immigrants: in 1881,
there were already one million foreigners and three million in 1931. Although
the growth of the foreign population has changed little since then, the
number of Europeans (immigrants from Russia after the Tsarist revolution
and the wars, see film East/West; immigrants from Poland;
immigrants from Italy and Spain during the Mussolini and Franco dictatorships
and after WWII when migrants workers came to work in mines because labor
was needed etc;Ukrainians, Armenians, Chileans and Asians.. ) has systematically
declined in favor of immigration from former colonies in Africa, North
Africa and Southeast Asia (former Indochina). In 1990, the highest
number of immigrants were from Portugal, with 645,000 people, followed
by 619,900 Algerians and 584,700 immigrants from Morocco. The rest of the
foreign population consisted of 253,700 Italians, 216,000 Spaniards, 207,500
Tunisians, 201,500 Turks, 46,300 Poles and 51,700 from the former Yugoslavia.
Defender of human rights, France also likes to think of
herself as a land of asylum for political refugees.
In 1952, France signed the 1951 Geneva Convention which governs current
asylum methods and created the Office français de protection des
réfugiés et apatrides (OFPRA – French Office for the Protection
of
Refugees and Stateless Persons).
In July 1974, when economic growth was slowing down, the government
announced that immigration would officially be brought to an end, although
the right to asylum and family reunification would continue.
Now immigrants come from countries where political repression is high.
Immigrants always remain attached to their community of origin
and their national or "ethnic" culture. Some countries have relied
on immigration for their development (United States, Canada, Australia,
Argentina,
etc.) This is one of the reasons why the integration model of
a nation-State cannot be transposed.
There are three main models of integration for foreigners and immigrants:
1--The so-called German ethnic model according to which nationality
is conferred chiefly by descent (right of blood), language, culture and
religion; foreign "ethnic" groups are regarded as being impossible to assimilate
and the policy does not therefore aim to transform them into nationals;
2--The so-called French "political" model, according to which nationality
together with citizenship is based
largely on acceptance of
the right of soil. which is a combination of residence and jus soli
[place of birth] and in which "ethnic" identities are confined to private
life rather than spilling over into the public sphere
(secularism); the implicit aim is the individual integration
of each immigrant by schools and other institutions;
3--The British/US model in which minorities are recognized (in community
life, but not legally) as political players;
here, ideological differences may lead to collective forms of
segregation: ethnic neighbourhoods, and segregation
in social activities and in the workplace.
Prospects for the integration of immigrants in France
Nowadays, immigration into France has to be seen in a European context;
on the one hand, because the integration paths of European and non-European
immigrants are diverging and, on the other, because national immigration
and integration policies are now in line with the European Community Treaties
which set out the frameworks for action by member States. Moreover, member
States are now being confronted by the same problems: radical economic
changes, employment crisis, urban segregation, marginalization of unskilled
workers, calling into question of education systems, racism, etc.).*
Each country has its own way of integrating its population depending
on its political tradition. At the same time, however, asylum and
immigration policy is becoming a Community matter: under the Schengen
Agreements (1985 and 1990), the signatory countries had already agreed,
for instance, to harmonize conditions for the issue of
short-stay visas. The Treaty of Amsterdam (Article 73k), signed
in 1997, states that the Council of the Union should draw up measures in
two areas of immigration policy: entry and residence conditions (issue
of visas and long-term residence permits, including for the purpose
of family reunion, by the member States) and illegal immigration
and illegal residence. In the long term, these decisions will
be taken by qualified majority. EU nation-States will nevertheless retain
the right to decide independently how to form themselves into communities
of citizens.