TRUE OR FAKE. Will France really welcome 500,000 foreigners in 2023?

For several weeks, Les Républicains have been stepping up to the plate on the theme of immigration. In the media, MP Olivier Marleix mentions several times the number of foreigners welcomed in France. “This year, we are at 500,000 foreigners welcomed”he assured on a TV set. This data iscorrect? As we cannot predict the figures for the year 2023, let’s look at those for 2022. To obtain a total of 500,000, the MP accumulated the 320,330 residence permits granted in France, as well as the 156,103 asylum applications. We then reach 476,433, the equivalent of the city of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), as Olivier Marleix.

Inaccurate numbers

However, according to some specialists, this calculation is wrong. “We cannot add the number of residence permits issued with the number of asylum applications because in the issuance of residence permits, there are refugees“, explains Matthieu Tardis, co-director of Synergies migrations. Olivier’s cipher Marleix is therefore overestimated. According to the experts contacted, the most relevant figure for assessing the number of foreigners received in France in 2022 is that of the first residence permits issued, i.e. 320,330 people.

MP LR also explains that “France has become the sieve country of the European Union”. What is true is that France with Germany are indeed the countries which register the most asylum applications in the European Union. But if we look at the number of foreigners in relation to the population, France is below the European average with 7.7% of strangers.

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