What are the candidates proposing on immigration?

All week, the political brief takes stock of the programs of the main candidates for the European elections on June 9. Wednesday May 22, we examine the proposals on immigration.

The Macronist list mainly highlights the pact on migration and asylum, which was voted on April 14 by the European Parliament. Valérie Hayer is the only head of the list to support these future rules which provide for a tightening of controls upon arrival in Europe, placement in a detention center while asylum applications are examined, or even a solidarity mechanism for distribute refugees across Europe. Countries opposed to reception will face a fine of 20,000 euros per person refused.

The firm measures that will be implemented by Brussels are insufficient in the eyes of the far right. Jordan Bardella pleads for a “double border“at the gates of Europe by instructing Frontex to return illegal migrants, and at the national level by limiting free movement in the Schengen area to European citizens only. Even if the RN does not really enter into the operational, without saying , for example, if it would involve a return of border posts between European countries to carry out checks Jordan Bardella also calls for the expulsion of “.illegal immigrants, Islamists and foreign delinquents“. Marion Maréchal makes more or less the same proposals, but Reconquête! goes further by talking about “remigration“, which would also target foreigners”long-term unemployed“.

LR also advocates firmness. François-Xavier Bellamy wishes to strengthen the external borders of the European Union, with the deployment of maritime forces in the Mediterranean and the “construction of physical barriers in the East“. His program evokes “walls“and”ditches“. The right-wing candidate also wants to limit legal immigration, by proposing that Member States can regulate family reunification as they wish, today regulated by a European directive.

As opposed to all these drastic proposals regarding immigration, the left has a guideline: welcome “with dignity“. First, Raphaël Glucksmann (PS-Place publique), Manon Aubry (LFI) and Marie Toussaint (Les ecologists) highlight the “duty“to save migrants in the Mediterranean. The rebellious list therefore proposes to replace Frontex with a “civil rescue agency“.

For undocumented immigrants who are already on European soil and who work, particularly on farms in the South of the continent, environmentalists propose regularization. Raphaël Glucksmann insists on the creation of “legal channels of migration“, with visas for workers, because he wants a policy”mastered“. According to the head of the PS list, the reception is not unconditional, foreigners to whom Europe refuses the right of asylum or another residence permit should be returned to their country. Another proposal on the left, supported by environmentalists and rebels: add climate crises to the criteria to be taken into account to obtain refugee status.