2024-02-12 14:30:49
Are the arguments put forward to promote the “immigration” law – passed on December 19 by Parliament – completely bogus ? The smartest economist in France has his own idea.
Photo caption: FRESHWATER SAILOR_ Emmanuel Macron has wet feet: the more his government pushes to get the “immigration” law accepted, the more the far right gets off on it. Be careful, it rocks…
Currently in France, no issue is more divisive than that of immigration. From vague theories such as the “great replacement”, to the overestimation of the cost for the state budget, including the highlighting of terrorist risks, the confusion is skillfully maintained by the fear mongers and by certain media which open plethora of platforms for the proponents of these theses. The reality of the figures is, however, very far from these fantasies, and the exploitation of immigration often aims to stigmatize French people of African origin. No calm debate on the issue is possible as the imbroglio over the definitions, forecasts and consequences of immigration has been influenced by the fantasies of the extreme right.
TROJAN HORSE
A first fantasy concerns the difference between perceived immigration and real immigration. According to a survey, the French estimate the foreign population at 23.5%. However, in reality, it would only be 7.6%. This problem of discernment is due to the confusion deliberately maintained by the right and the extreme right between French people of foreign origin and migrants. Immigration is often used as a Trojan horse to deploy racism once morest a category of French people because of their origins, their skin color or their religion. To use the expression of sociologist Smaïn Laacher, there is “ French people who never stop being immigrants » and, in this case, their French nationality does not protect them from discrimination due to their surname or their skin color. Questions around integration and national identity target, in a roundregarding way, these populations. However, in concrete terms, it is nonsense to ask French people to integrate, and it is time for those who do not consider them as such in their own right to understand this.
The other fantasy is that of the invasion of migrants – especially those coming from Africa. The last forecast which has received significant media and institutional attention (given the number of awards obtained) comes from the essayist and journalist Stephen Smith. In his book The rush to Europe. Young Africa on its way to the old continent, the author clumsily tries to compile data and comes to the conclusion that in 2050, Europe will be populated by 25% sub-Saharan immigrants. Many criticisms have been made of the author’s lack of methodological rigor. Professor at the Collège de France François Héran demonstrates, for example, in an article for the journal Populations and societies that Smith’s scenario does not hold water, and that the most realistic order of magnitude is five times lower. According to him, sub-Saharan migrants will certainly occupy a growing place in Northern societies but will remain a very small minority: around 4% of the population. François Héran indicates, among other things, that Stephen Smith’s prophecy omits several important points, such as the fact that the population of sub-Saharan Africa, due to its poverty, emigrates little, and that when it does emigrate, 70% of it does so towards other sub-Saharan countries. Stephen Smith’s lack of rigor did not prevent him from being cited by President Emmanuel Macron and receiving the 2018 Geopolitical Book Prize from the hands of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The enthusiasm for this book which offered validation ” “official” to the worst theses of the extreme right had the merit of confirming in broad daylight that in France, immigration is especially a problem when it concerns Africans.
SUCTION PUMPS
Finally, the third fantasy lies in the fact that a foreigner living in a poor country or at war would know the social model better than a French person (1/3 of whom already do not claim the RSA even though they are eligible for it) and would be ready to risk his life (by crossing the Mediterranean on a makeshift boat) to benefit from it. This theory shows a complete misunderstanding of how the social model works. Because France is far from being a country as socially open as we think. For example, one job in five remains inaccessible to foreigners. In addition, for a foreigner to be able to receive the RSA, he must have resided in France for five years (at the time of the RMI it was three years). Ten years for the minimum old age (initially it was one year). If the vacuum pump theory was serious, then the tightening of access to social benefits should have had a negative effect on immigration, but none of this was seen. Moreover, countries that do not have a social model as generous as ours, such as the United States or the United Kingdom, are just as much, or even more, a destination for foreigners to reside in.
The reality is that immigration is a forced choice because there are wars or poor future prospects for the youth of a country (who most often migrate to a neighboring country). Another reality is that many sectors might not function without a foreign workforce. This is the case for catering (with 18% immigrant workers), hotels (18%), construction (18%), home services (23%) and also hospitals (17%). hospital doctors are foreign)…
Par Thomas Porcher
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