France to ‘take back control’ of immigration policy

Macron government says it will crack down on illegal migrants and fix quotas for foreign workers

French president Emmanuel Macron’s government has pledged to “take back control” of immigration policy, cracking down on illegal migrants and preparing quotas for foreign workers in an initiative designed to win voters from far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

“We’ve decided to go far in opening up where we think it’s good for France, and go far in restrictions where the abuses are intolerable,” Edouard Philippe, Mr Macron’s prime minister, said in Paris on Wednesday as he outlined the new policy flanked by four ministers.

“We want to take back control of our migration policy,” he said. “Retaking control means when we say yes it really means yes, and when we say no it really means no.”

Ministers insisted that France remained open to legal migrants, including students and family members of earlier migrants.

But they also signalled a hardening of official attitudes to visitors who overstay their visas or migrants who remain even after their asylum applications have been rejected.

Christophe Castaner, interior minister, said the unsanitary encampments of 1,500 to 3,000 migrants on the northern fringes of Paris would be moved by the end of the year.

Rightwing and far-right politicians and voters have long complained about what they see as excessive immigration, especially by Muslims from north Africa, and Ms Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party has built a strong base of support among white French voters with its antiimmigration platform.

The new plan includes quotas or targets for legal economic migrants, as well as a measure to deprive newly arrived asylum seekers of access to basic medical care for three months.

The proposals have prompted angry denunciations from leftwing politicians and grudging approval from some on the right.

The French government is portraying its plan as a move to encourage legal migrant workers sought by labour-starved French employers, while cracking down on illegal migrants and asylum seekers from countries such as Albania and Georgia who are unlikely to face political persecution at home and whose applications have little chance of success.