Amid France’s legislative election campaign, Latin American migrants are worried about the anti-immigration policies that the far-right party, leading in the polls, promises to implement if it wins a parliamentary majority.
“It’s been a long time since I was so afraid of the election results,” Maria, a Mexican who has been in France for six years and does not want to reveal her surname, told AFP.
The far-right National Regroupment (RN) party is leading the polls for the general elections, the first round of which will be held on Sunday and the second on July 7.
The RN and its allies have 36% of the vote, followed by the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP, 29%) and President Emmanuel Macron’s center-right alliance (20%), according to an Ipsos poll published on Friday.
Uncertainty hangs over whether they will win an absolute majority in the National Assembly (lower house), which would open the door to a far-right government with its young leader Jordan Bardella, 28, as prime minister.
“You don’t feel comfortable on the street knowing that one in three people is voting for a candidate who wants to oust you,” says Luis Molero, a Peruvian student at Sciences Po University in Paris.
In 2022, around 7 million migrants lived in France – 10.3% of the country’s population – of whom 2.6 million had obtained French nationality, according to statistics institute Insee. The majority are from Africa and Europe, and around 6% come from the Americas and Oceania combined, according to official figures.
Policies against irregular migration were a central point of the RN electoral campaign, which also proposes measures that would affect foreigners with valid documents, mainly by implementing the notion of “national priority”.
This doctrine would involve prioritizing access to work and housing and reserving social benefits for French citizens. In the case of foreign students, their access to public student housing would be restricted.
“Foreign students will not have priority and social benefits will be reserved first and foremost for French students, who also have problems finding accommodation and paying their bills,” RN deputy candidate Alexis Jolly told France Bleu radio during the campaign.
This policy “is not compatible with the French constitution, nor with European Union law, nor with international human rights law,” Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, professor of public law at the University of Lyon 3, told AFP.
“Discrimination, especially on the basis of nationality, is prohibited. RN would go against these fundamental rules,” he adds.
The far-right party could, however, tighten the criteria for granting visas, benefits or financial aid, such as increasing the minimum number of years of residence in the territory.
2024-06-29 23:11:53