“If I had to summarize, I would say that now we must be mean to the bad and nice to the good.” It is under this rather lapidary slogan that the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, assisted by the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt, wanted to place the spirit of the future immigration law, scheduled for early 2023, during an interview granted towards World and published on the newspaper’s website this Wednesday morning. With a star device: the creation of a residence permit specifically dedicated to workers in an irregular situation who hold a job in a sector in need of labor.
The two ministers hope that this measure, added to the procedures for deportation to the border, will receive the approval of the right when the text reaches the National Assembly.
The building in focus
Gérald Darmanin explained the main idea of this roadmap: “Tomorrow, if a foreigner in an irregular situation says ‘I want to work in a job in tension’, the Minister of Labor proposes to create a residence permit ‘work in tension’ to be defined, therefore, it will have adequate social protection”.
However, to tell the truth, it will be less that the worker wants to make up for such a lack of personnel than to exercise, already, in a field in difficulty of arm. In any case, this was clarified for his part by the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt: “This specific residence permit will be there to regularize a situation because we show that we are working in a profession in tension.”
He gave a first example of the affected sectors: “We would like, particularly in deficit occupations such as construction, that the migrant worker in an irregular situation can request the possibility of remaining in the territory without going through the employer.”
Unscrupulous employers targeted
For the resident of the rue de Grenelle, this new residence permit would indeed have several virtues. First, he would remove the rug from under the feet of employers who profit from illegal work. “This will allow reversing the balance of power with some employers who may find it in the interest of their employees to be in an illegal situation,” he said before anticipating the political confrontation that is coming: “The RN will not be able to do the work stolen from the French because we are in positions that are already occupied by workers in an irregular situation precisely because there are vacancies”.
As for employers who do not bother to know if their workers fall within this framework, they should expose themselves to sanctions.
“We can imagine a form of fixed fine for an irregular worker found in a company. We can also authorize the prefects to pronounce the administrative closure of the establishments in question for longer periods than those that exist today”, indicated Olivier Dussopt.
Wink
15 years after the “elected immigration” of Nicolas Sarkozy, the Minister of the Interior wants in any case to dig the same furrow. “Today, family immigration represents 50% of the flows while labor immigration affects less than 10%”, affirmed Gérald Darmanin, before continuing: “In the bill, the integration budget will increase by 24% because The key to successful immigration is integration, through language, French values, work.”
“We want to make residence permits for several years conditional on passing a French exam,” he stressed. However, Gérald Darmanin announced a new flexibility in this chapter.
“We are going to propose the automatic renewal of multi-year titles for those who do not pose any problem, who do not have a criminal record,” he said. He then took as an example “these 70-year-old Chibanis from my Tourcoing constituency.”
Representatives of a government that only benefits from a relative majority, Gérald Darmanin and Olivier Dussopt know that they will need to find some additional support in the Chamber when the time comes. That’s why they made sure to emphasize that the text was not set in stone, in a wink leaning to the right. “If we have to modify the project, we will do it. We are very open,” assured Gérald Darmanin.
Source: BFM TV
