NICE, France

The French government is under fire from both sides of the political spectrum over a contentious proposed law on immigration.

A draft of the law was unveiled this week and the bill will be up for parliamentary debate next year.

It has already stirred up a political storm in France, with both left-wing and far-right opposition parties blasting President Emmanuel Macron and his government – albeit for starkly different reasons.

According to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, the law would ease the integration of migrant workers in France, while giving the government greater power to deport undocumented individuals.

On paper, it purports to give undocumented workers already in France a chance to acquire legal status.

The glaring caveat, though, is this applies only to people deemed fit for employment in sectors facing a shortage of labor, such as the hotel and construction industries.

Also, those hoping to benefit would need to fulfill what Darmanin called “integration requirements,” including command of the French language.

This is an attempt by the government to make work “the cornerstone of successful integration” in France, the minister said.

Under the law, the government will facilitate the issuance of multiyear work permits for people who pose no problems and have no criminal record, he said.

On the flip side, if passed, the new immigration law would make it much easier for the government “to expel irregular foreigners” from France.

One of the ways it would do that is by reducing the number of possible appeals against deportation from the current 12 to just four.

Darmanin said the government would “make life impossible for irregular foreigners” who have been issued an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) order, the main measure of expulsion for foreign nationals.

“For example, by ensuring that they no longer benefit from benefits or social housing,” he said.

Under the proposed law, those given OQTF orders would be declared wanted in all French territories.

- Far-right furious, leftists lament exploitation

French right-wing and far-right parties are vehemently opposed to any steps that give undocumented people a legal right to live in France.

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader who challenged Macron for the presidency this year, has described the bill as a “campaign for the regularization of illegal immigrants.”

This would open France “to legal immigration in unprecedented proportions,” she said.

Eric Ciotti, a lawmaker from The Republicans party, termed the bill “a form of trickery to move toward regularization,” criticizing the government for being unable “to expel immigrants subject to OQTF.”

On the other side of the French political spectrum, the main cause of concern over the proposed law centers on exploitation of migrant workers.

With this bill the government is moving toward “using human beings as cannon fodder for employers,” said Thomas Portes of the New Popular Ecological and Solidarity Union.

“You come, you work, we exploit you and then we release you,” he said, likening the process to “vomit.”

- Appeasing the far-right

Sensing a threat to its plan, the French government has ramped up efforts to win over the opposition, particularly the far-right.

Through a plethora of media appearances, Darmanin has been trying to assure them that this is not “a massive regularization plan.”

Once a labor shortage is overcome in a particular sector, any migrant worker in that field will lose their residence permit after a year and be expelled from France, he said.

Stressing the need for “more qualitative immigration,” the interior minister said the government remains open to proposals from the opposition to improve the bill.

- ‘Used and thrown on a plane’

Undocumented migrants in France are under no illusion that the law will be beneficial for them.

The first impression of some sort of relief is misleading since the devil is in its details, according to Abdelhak, who arrived in Nice from Morocco four years ago.

The 30-year-old, a self-employed mechanic, remains undocumented and has been subject to an OQTF for over a year.

Under this law, migrant workers will be “used” and “thrown on a plane like a reject” at the end of the day, he said.

*Translated by James Tasamba