Living in France: Politics, policies and immigration

I have no opinion - but here’s what I think:

I tend not to offer my opinion on anything political here - doing so is potentially problematic. As a foreigner, I simply don’t have rights as I do at home in the United States. Foreigners in this country – and in others – occasionally forget this. I am not a citizen of France, and a path to citizenship here would take several years, if that’s even what we choose to do.

France just passed a bill to qualify what types of immigrants can come into the country. The bill includes measures like limiting access to welfare benefits for foreigners, imposing stricter rules on foreign students, introducing migration quotas, and making it more challenging for children born in France to acquire French citizenship. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen call it an "ideological victory."

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It’s complicated, but I like modern France versus the “true French” image that the ideological right tends to put forward, which is also often the image exported to the US. Today’s France is a diverse culture with contributions from a great number of people from all over the world.  The diversity is obvious just walking around, particularly in Nantes, the city we live in. Like at home, I love what immigration has done for the US.

This matters a bit more to me in France because I am an immigrant here, or at least attempting to be.

This part feels familiar

Other parts of American culture I don’t enjoy also seem echoed here . Whatever it means to keep French culture “truly French” are just like the folks who want to keep America “truly American,” whatever that could possibly mean. Although it probably means the same in both countries: it means you’re racist or at the least, your considerations are pretty lopsided.

As Americans, it is unlikely to be a huge problem for us, but some policies changes may prove annoying.

I am not surprised by any anti-immigrant sentiment here or even laws about it: France is famously Islamophobic despite these cultures being a part of its national makeup for hundreds of years. In the case of Algeria, the country WAS France, officially.  

At the same time, many immigrants don’t want to be here and will risk the incredibly dangerous journey across the English channel to the UK. It is not just a matter of family or familiarity with the language: conditions for migrants can be abysmal and have been deemed inhumane by Human Rights Watch.

Progress isn’t always forward

It’s been said that the French President Emmanuel Macron has more power than any other president in Europe. It matters when he starts offering policies in an attempt to appease fascist actors (the “extreme right”) of government.  Despite the famous failings of attempted appeasement of fascists in governments around the world, people continue to do so.

Macron's party lost the majority in parliament in the elections of June 2022. Since , the government has often been unable to win votes in parliament.

Macron’s own comments on the matter suggest it was an effort to compromise with extremist members of Parliament, but politics as usual never works with fascists. Any negotitation is seen as weakness and any move toward their positions is seen as validating. They will only demand more. It never works. Look at the paralysis caused in the US Senate, for example, or in any number of other countries.

Meanwhile, we’ll see just what these changes do to our own personal situations. The paperwork about some of our immigration forms have already been incredibly slow.

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