New French Interior Minister Might Make France Even More Anti-Immigrant
"So I will have only one key phrase: restore order."
*Scroll to the bottom for my main takeaways and why I think this is dangerous.*
On Monday, September 23, France's new interior minister, Bruno Retailleau—a proponent of the right-wing “Les Républicains” group—let the French press know his intentions to drastically reduce immigration to France.
"I have an objective—because like millions of French people—I think that mass immigration is not an opportunity for France, and it's not even an opportunity for the migrants who are sometimes sent to die on the high seas."
Retailleau is well known for his strongly right-leaning views on security and immigration.
Throughout several of his recent interviews regarding his political stance on different issues as a new minister in the French government, Retailleau just used the word “immigration.” He made no efforts to differentiate between legal and illegal migration.
"So I will have only one key phrase: restore order. Order in the streets, order at the borders, order in our minds too, because we must return to simple facts: a police officer is not a social worker, a delinquent is not a victim, a country is not a train station."
Retailleau has already given us a glimpse of the avenues he’ll employ in order to “restore order.” He specified 3 categories into which his main plans fall:
Utilising existing regulatory powers already available to a minister in the French government.
"Not holding back from passing new legislation."
Retailleau cites the amendments that were added into that 2024 immigration bill by right-wingers in the French National Assembly, all of which were deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council for one reason or another. Find details about this law here. (Library of Congress)
Working with other European countries who agree that the framework needs to change to decrease immigration into Europe.
Read more about this new development here. (France’s “The Local”)
Or here. (Reuters)
Or also here. (France24)
Why Might This Be a Dangerous Development?
First of all, Minister Retailleau is cracking down hard on immigration in order to capitalize on the murder of a French student. The suspect arrested by authorities in Switzerland has Moroccan nationality, and “had been previously convicted of rape and had been the subject of an order to leave France.” See an article about this situation here. (France24)
The part that is dangerous is Minister Retailleau’s solution to this issue. Instead of focusing on the individual suspect, or focusing on people who commit crimes in general, he announced a blanket crackdown on all immigration, legal or illegal.
Doesn’t this mean that, statistically, more innocent immigrants will be affected than offending immigrants? Does the benefit of protection outweigh the cost of millions of innocent people being negatively affected?
Main Takeaways
France’s government is taking a right-leaning swing with platforms like this one.
Minister Retailleau might have the sway to reignite significant conversation and consideration of the controversial January 2024 French Immigration Law.
You generally don’t chop down an entire tree just because of a few dead leaves. Cutting of a twig or branch will usually suffice. This feels a little extreme.
What’s my main opinion on immigration? Well, in the words of Daveed Diggs’s Marquis de Lafayette and Lin-Manual Miranda’s Alexander Hamilton in the hit 2015 Broadway musical, Hamilton…
“Immigrants…we get the job done.” - Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton
What are your thoughts? What does this mean for immigrants? Could this sentiment on immigration be shared or used as a model by other countries? Would that be a good thing? A bad thing? Let me know what you think!