This week, Elisabeth Borne announced the postponement of the immigration bill until the fall, for lack of a majority in the Assembly to have it adopted. Immigration is a sensitive, if not divisive, subject for all governments. A look back at more than a century of immigration history in France with sociologist Jean Viard.
Like every weekend on France Info, sociologist Jean Viard answers a social question. This week, the postponement of the immigration bill until the fall. In the absence of a majority in the Assembly to have this project adopted, Elisabeth Borne was forced to do so. Immigration is a sensitive, divisive subject for all the governments that rub shoulders with it…
franceinfo: France is a very old land of immigration, if not the oldest in Europe. Is it still a land of welcome?
John Viard: It is a land of immigration, notably for geographical reasons. And so we happen to be in the middle, so we go through our house. And then we had a lot of refugees. We must remember the Armenians, the massacre of the Armenians in 1915, the Spanish republicans, the Italian antifascists, the Vietnamese after the seizure of power by the communists, the harkis of course, and the Syrians more recently. So a large part of the refugees are indeed refugees who bring us their culture, their cultural traditions and, for example, these are the people who brought us couscous, which is now the favorite dish of the French. That is the world of refugees.
Afterwards, there was indeed a period when we went looking for workers, particularly in Morocco, but also in Algeria, to bring them to our factories. Canvassers went from village to village, to see the young men, to see if they were sturdy, solid, etc. And that’s how we put in the mines, but also in the factories, part of the immigrant populations. There had already been that with the Chinese populations, during the war of 14-18, we went looking for Chinese labour. So that’s “called” immigration, we’re going to get them.
And then indeed, the transformation of the economies, the fact that we have outsourced our factories, for 50 years, rather than bringing in immigrants from the Maghreb, we tend to send our factories to Asia, we have changed the model. So there is a cultural change, but on the one hand we have an essential workforce, in agriculture, construction and personal services, that is to say, these people who arrive and who return with modest jobs. And for them, it’s progress, but for a Frenchman who’s been there, or a foreigner who’s been there for a long time, it would be different. And then we have above all that most of the people who come now, come out of university.
There are 5 million foreigners in France, you have to give the figure all the time, even if there are actually many more in England, Germany, Russia, etc. because most flows, when there are wars, all that, people first go to the country next door. Look at the number of Syrians in Turkey, because it’s the same culture, it’s the same language.
We only go further if we have been called by people, etc. but one thing must be said, it is the consequence of colonization. We must assume the historical responsibilities of a nation. We had colonies, we taught French to people in black Africa, in the Maghreb, and these people, for them, it makes them dream of France, democracy, French values, women’s rights. And so, I would say that we have to assume what our ancestors do, even if we don’t agree with them.
But, we can clearly see today that the debate revolves around this so-called chosen immigration. It is a term that comes up a lot in political discourse, especially on the right. When did this term come about and why?
It happened because there was a phase where we talked about family reunification. It was under President Giscard d’Estaing, because we had only brought men in fact, and these men returned to the Maghreb one month a year. And then, at that time, we defended the idea, which moreover seems legitimate to me, that they have the right to have a wife and children, and we brought in the families. So that led to something that was not linked to the economic question, it was not linked to the fact that they needed work since the men were already there.
And we also started talking about the second generation?
We talked about the second generation, and it’s true that of the children born in France, 16% have one of their four grandparents who comes from the Maghreb, 16%. And it is true that the clear place of the Muslim religion has become the second religion in France, with approximately 6 to 8 million more or less regular practitioners.
So all that, it has to be said, and France, following the colonial period, is still a great Catholic country, and what’s more, a great Muslim country, and I believe that we have to face it as an asset, because that for the world of tomorrow is a world of innovation, discovery, transformations to win the climate war, and for that, we need a lot of brains and creative brains. It should always be remembered that the inventors of messenger RNA were Turkish political refugees in Germany.