In case RN wins next year’s Presidential election, I’ve been looking at which policies they’re proposing might impact non French/non EU citizens resident in France.
Two things stand out.
Firstly, they propose to allow freedom of movement within the Schengen area to be restricted only to EU citizens. It is completely unclear how this would work in practice - what about legal residents (holding CdS) for example? Would they have to reintroduce manual passport checks on land borders etc? It would presumably violate EU freedom of movement laws. It would obviously require agreement from both other member states and the EU authorities, which makes this policy seem rather challenging!
Secondly they propose to offer a referendum to the French people. Brits in particular will be relieved to hear it will not ask the Leave or Remain in EU question. Instead the question would be whether to change the French constitution to permit French laws to override the immigration aspects of EU laws and treaties.
Both Poland and Germany have previously tried insisting that their domestic laws overrode certain EU laws, and both countries eventually had to back down. Poland (during the previous PiS government) was threatened with immediate infringement proceedings, freezing of EU funds etc and €1m daily fines. It is very unclear how the RN believes it could avoid this same fate if it were to pursue this action.
I think that it is the next level policies that might have most impact. As we have seen with the Retailleau circular this can make significant changes at the flick of a pen (pun intended).
So I would expect to see it being harder to get resident permits, harder to bring family members to France, harder to get a job as a non-European and citizenship could be more restricted.
Also access to benefits could change too for non-French. The odious ones make a distinction between real French people, and those who have been granted citizenship. So if you haven’t been French since the revolution things may change.
Generally the direction of travel will be that foreigners will be less welcome, especially those who are darker hued. And god help the Rom.
To answer the question, I do not think I would be affected or indeed, that worried. And if it is the only way to hasten a woman as president, then bring it on
I imagine I am not alone in knowing about the constitutional council. But yes, it has already proved invaluable to the British community in squashing some of the post Brexit madness (I’ll remember which in a minute). In time a right wing gov’t will no doubt water down its efficacy but a the moment it is a strong back stop to prevent laws that fly in the face of the constitution, ie liberty, equality and fraternity. New laws have to go through the CC.
Neither do I, unless anti-semitism gets worse, but surely that’s not the point? It’s the overall approach to immigration and integration of non-French people as a whole that is important, not whether some white, rich, incomers are discomforted in any way.
@NotALot We’d have to agree on the definition of woman first.
Adam is perhaps thinking wistfully of Mrs Thatcher?
I would be worried - personally - if my own situation in France (Brit, EU family member with permanent residence, married to Luxembourg citizen) was not underpinned by the highest level of legal protection offered by EU laws to non EU citizens. Why - because whereas an RN government could, and almost certainly will, tighten/change French immigration laws, it cannot, despite its apparent wishes, change EU laws. I assume approximately the same EU protections apply to EEA citizens/families. I don’t pretend to know if they protect those who are Article 50 card holders.
I strongly suspect that Prefectures under an RN government, would apply the letter, but not spirit of immigration laws, ie could delay appointments for CdS applications and renewals, could make appointments scarce, could drag out processing, could ask for numerous irrelevant follow up documents, and could delay CdS issuing etc. This is sometimes described as a policy of “Administrative friction”.
I would be worried if RN renege on their current claims that EU membership is not ‘up for discussion’. Offering the French a referendum on EU membership could have seriously unpredictable consequences, including obviously for non French citizens in France.
If RN try to pick and choose which EU laws they observe, sometimes described as a “backdoor Frexit” and get into a Hungary/Poland style stand-off, we will quite possibly consider leaving. The EU is important to both of us, and has been very good to us both over the years. Coincidentally we have just returned from visiting the Belgian Ardennes, in part to see whether it might - if the balloon really does go up - provide us with a French speaking bolt-hole within the EU, near my wife’s home country of Luxembourg. We hope this remains merely a hypothetical problem…
I am happy here, but I can always go and iive with the Italian fascists. So far , they haven’t made any legal distinction between native born Italians and those granted citizenship by blood , like me. The situation there isn’t fluid as it could be here.
In addition to the possible avenues of pressure on immigrants that you noted, my concern is the RN trying to deny or make health care much more expensive to non-citizens here.
There is an old adage that you should not worry about things that may happen which you can’t control, not that I am a subscriber.
What FN wants FN may not get.
I think the target is not EU citizens and those covered by the WA, it is principally others that are in the sights of FN, however things will get tougher. The first thing FN will first focus on is new incomers, making it much harder to live here; high income thresholds etc, as a French friend says, the immigration criteria should be whether they drink wine and eat andouillette.
A high possibility is removing all benefits from immigrants that are already here and may be set a minimum income threshold; a S1 could well be an advantage as medical costs are passed to the responsible nation. I don’t think nett contributors are going to be rejected; why cut off your nose to spite your face (yet)?
EU citizenship and the WA will be an impediment to the wants of FN, remaining in the EU would be difficult with FN turning on EU citizens and for the British, there a way more French in the UK than British in France; the EU WA is based on reciprocity.
That’s just the sort of thing many of my French pals would/might say (especially to me) as a joke… since it is well-known that I hate andouillete (unless it is the artisanal one made from canard we found once down South … delicious).
Incidentally, andouillete divides the Commune when it is the main course at village “do’s”… there are haters and luvvers… even within the same family group… nuffink to do with pork.
It makes me nervous as one who hasn’t been able to make the move yet - and though I fully aim to learn the language to a decent level, I would fall foul of that test for ethical reasons - see also the whole range of traditional French cuisine…
ah well, it’s not obligatory to like French cuisine… leaves more for me.
Might be helpful if you can quote a decent reason why you won’t touch “whatever” you are being offered. (Many people have all sorts of health problems etc etc and should be understanding)
My son said the same thing about JB when he made speeches.Its not the likes of us they are worried about but those who do not conform with a mostly christian country, do not work and create city ghettoes which incites high crime and offloading any benefits to relatives across the Med. Obviously they cannot come right out and say what they mean but folks know who they are targeting
Incidentally, regarding ANY cuisine (in any country)… I’ve found it best to “not know” exactly what is being offered (unless one has allergies) and simply to do the taste-test.
If it tastes good… hurrah… if not, fair enough, but at least I’ve “tried” !!
