centrist senators table a text containing numerous measures censored by the Constitutional Council

The text intends to include provisions “indispensable for the implementation of a fair and effective migration policy”without “no distrust of the Constitutional Council”. The centrist group, allied with the right in the Senate, tabled a bill incorporating most of the measures of the immigration law censored by the Constitutional Council, according to their text consulted Thursday February 1 by AFP. Submitted at the end of January, it is currently being recorded by the Senate services.

The Sages censored at the end of January several measures integrated into the immigration bill at the initiative of the right, around thirty of which were considered to have no sufficient link with the objective of the text. The centrists’ bill takes up 16 of them. It thus plans to toughen the conditions for family reunification by extending from 18 to 24 months the length of residence required to qualify for it, by excluding from the system spouses under the age of 21 and by imposing on the applicant a level “elementary” in French.

Tightening of access to family benefits

The extension to five years of the length of residence necessary for foreigners who do not work to benefit from the personalized autonomy allowance and family benefits also appears in the bill. However, the centrists do not mention personal housing assistance (APL), which caused a lot of talk in December.

The offense of illegal residence, with a penalty of a criminal fine, is also proposed in their text, as is the impossibility for foreigners in an irregular situation to benefit from fare reductions in Ile-de-France transport. Much debated, the deposit requested from foreign students in France to plan their return is not integrated into the text, but they will nevertheless have to “justify annually” of character “real and serious” of their studies.