When discussing refugees and migrants, we tend to more or less deliberately mix up two topics: firstly, the way we treat migrants and refugees who managed to reach France; secondly, the number of refugees and migrants that we ought to keep. We pretend to believe that if we treat well those who arrived in France, we will attract more from elsewhere and we will no longer be able to turn them away.
This is wrong: First, the numbers remain extremely low. According to the OECD, in 2016, 78,000 refugees and asylum-seekers were admitted in France. In addition, there were 180,000 immigrants added to that number, including 90,000 for family reunification and 70,000 students. In 2017, the number of refugees and asylum seekers were reported to have reached approximately 100,000. Moreover, we’ve averaged around 7,000 to 8,000 per month. This represents about one and a half (1.5) immigrants per thousand of the French population. One and a half per thousand !!!!!! It is possible to welcome with dignity each year one and a half per thousand of the French population! Even two or three per thousand!
France has not been at the forefront of this welcoming policy: in 2010 France hosted one out of every five (1 out of 5) asylum seekers in Europe, it now receives only one out of 15 (1 out of 15).
In addition, those who are received endure significant difficulties to be welcomed with dignity. If it weren’t for the extraordinary work of not-for-profit organizations and formidable, considerate and overworked civil servants who compensate for the deficiency of the state’s policies, an asylum seeker could never pass through the numerous hurdles of the maze that is French policies and procedures—“PADA, GUDA, CAES and OFIII, OFPRA.” And that is when the asylum seeker is not sent back by the unjust procedure known as “the Dublin procedure,” to the European country that welcomed him first, deferring the heaviest burden on the weakest of them, Greece. Ironically, this policy is in place at the very moment the French are demanding exactly the opposite procedure from the British!
Worse still: not only are immigrants and refugees badly received, but they are abused: I saw, with my own eyes, policemen gassing young people who were walking quietly on a Sunday afternoon in the streets of Calais near a bus station in order to dislodge them. I was sorry not only for these young juveniles from the other side of the world, but for those policemen who performed an act unworthy of their uniform, and of the morality they are supposed to defend.
The priority must be to treat well those who are actually here; and for that, to give ourselves the means to analyse much more quickly whether they fall under the right of asylum and, if it is the case, to give it to them full and whole. It is not normal that someone who has the right to stay in France legally is not allowed to study and work there, even temporarily, meaning that they could contribute positively to the nation that received them.
Furthermore, once an explicit policy has been defined (this has not been done yet), we must be very firm about the removal of those who have not been allowed to stay. We must, however, treat them with respect before their removal and it is especially important that we grant them an unconditional welcome in emergency housing during the winter. And here again, we must allocate the resources to do it properly.
And if, for the implementation of all this, more resources are needed, let’s find it. We are not talking about considerable sums and I am among those who would be willing to pay more taxes to better treat those who seek refuge in France, especially if I were assured that it would not be squandered in the countless waste of social transfers, privileged pensions and new advantages granted to the holders of capital.
By badly receiving those who come to us by the misfortune of their fate, we are accustoming ourselves to being heartless; we rot our soul, as a nation and as individuals. Let’s not forget this old lesson of history: by tolerating the abuse of the foreigner, we end up calling a foreigner anyone we wish to abuse.
