What’s happening?

On Thursday, January 25th, France’s Constitutional Council will deliver its verdict on the immigration bill that was passed by the parliament just before Christmas.

The Council’s job is to scrutinise all new laws to ensure that they comply with the French constitution and with France’s legal and international obligations.

Decisions are delivered by the sages (wise people) who make up the council, who have been considering this bill since December 26th. Deliberations take place in private so we will only know the overall decision, not how each council member voted.

The council has three choices; approve the bill in its current form, reject the bill in its entirety or tell the government to make changes to certain parts of the bill.

The decision of the council is final and there is no right of appeal, so Thursday is the crunch day when we find out whether and in what form the bill will become law. 

What will happen?

Only a fool would try to second-guess the wise ones, but many political commentators expect that certain sections of the bill will cause problems for the Council.

It’s very rare for the Constitutional Council to reject an entire bill (it’s only happened once since 1958) but it’s not unusual for the government to be told to make changes, and in fact political insiders say this is that the government wants.

Huh? The government wants its own bill to be changed?

Yes, because the bill that finally passed in the Assemblée nationale in December was very different to one originally proposed.

It’s a long and complicated story – full details here – but basically the government had to do a lot of political horse-trading to get enough MPs to support the bill, and the result was dozens of extra amendments being added by right-wing parties.

The final version of the bill was described by one leftist as ‘a National Front pamphlet from the 1980s’ – that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s certainly a lot more hardline than the original.

READ ALSO What’s in France’s new immigration bill and how will it affect foreigners in France

So which bits are likely to be changed or killed?

There’s not much in the government’s original bill that is likely to trouble the constitutional experts on the Council, so these bits seem likely to remain in, including the compulsory language tests for long-term residency cards. 

Several of the amendments that were added later are, however, expected to be either rejected outright or significantly altered. 

Here are some the sections that could be altered;

Benefit restrictions – the new law restricts access to benefits such as family allowance, housing allowance and top-up benefits for pensioners to people who who have lived in France to five years (unemployment benefits are not affected).

It is estimated that this will affect up to 110,000 legally-registered immigrants in France, including 33,000 children with charities warning that tens of thousands of people will be thrown into poverty by the changes. A total of 32 local authorities, including Paris, have already said that they will refuse to apply the new rules.

Migration cap – the bill demands an annual debate in parliament on the subject of immigration, and for parliamentarians to “determine the number of foreigners admitted to settle permanently in France” – in other words an immigration quota.

Family reunification – non-EU immigrants in France who wish to be joined by family member such as a spouse or children will have to wait 24 months before they can apply for a family reunification visa, up from 18 months currently. There are also enhanced financial requirements for applications.

Citizenship – the bill ends the droit du sol, or the automatic right of children born in France to foreign parents to French citizenship. This does not affect foreigners applying for citizenship through residency, marriage or ancestry.

Foreign students deposit – non-EU students coming to France to study will have to lodge a deposit with the State when applying for their visa, in order to cover “unexpected costs” during their stay in France. This will be refundable, but the exact amount has not been specified.

Medical care – one of the most controversial amendments proposed was an end to the Aide Medicale de l’Etat (AME) which provides healthcare for undocumented immigrants, in the final version of the bill this was watered down to a promise to review the AME system, and it is therefore unlikely to trouble the Constitutional Council.

British second-home owners – One amendment that has got a lot less attention in the French press – but which is of vital importance to British second-home owners – is the proposal to exempt Brits who own property in France from visa rules, in effect returning to pre-Brexit freedom of movement for Brits, but only those who own property in France.

This was initially in parliament on equality grounds (essentially giving one group special status because they are wealthy enough to own two properties) and could also potentially create problems with the EU since the 90-day rule is an EU one. 

We’ve got a look at this issue in more detail HERE. 

It’s possible that other parts of the bill will also be flagged by the Council – you can read a full explanation of what is in the bill HERE.

Will there be riots?

Last time we were waiting on a decision from the Constitutional Council it was over the pension reforms and their ruling was followed by days of street protest in cities across France, some of which turned violent.

It’s unlikely that we will see anything like the same scale of protest over the immigration bill, no matter how the decision goes as unlike pension reform this isn’t an issue that affects most people’s lives.

However there have been protests over the bill – over the weekend tens of thousands of people turned out to protests in several of France’s bigger cities, including Paris.

«J’ai honte d’être français en ce moment» : des dizaines de milliers de personnes mobilisées contre la loi immigration
https://t.co/H9usyNbipu

— Libération (@libe) January 22, 2024

Earlier in the week, students in Paris blockaded several lycées (high schools) and set fire to bins.