Controversial immigration bill sparks furor in France

NICE, France (AA) – 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.

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.

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.

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.”