Hypocrisy and Double Standards at the heart of French Immigration Policy

By Alan Widdowson and Sophia Sheera

Saturday 19th November 2022: a group of around 300 protestors sets off to demonstrate at the Col de Banyuls, a low mountain pass inland from the Mediterranean coast. One of the smallest frontier posts along the Pyrenees, it is nonetheless a crucial crossing-point between France and Spain. At the border: radiant skies, spectacular views over the mountains down to the Mediterranean – and six concrete blocks across the road.

Despite Covid restrictions being lifted, the crossing – along with another 8 out of 16 on the Franco-Spanish border - has remained closed since January 2021. The French government states that the pass remains blocked off as part of its wider ‘fight against terrorism and illegal immigration’. According to this line of reasoning, the closure of crossing points between France and Spain hinders migrants travelling up through Europe. Ironically, nothing has been done to hinder migrants crossing the border on foot, even if they now must transfer from one vehicle to another as they cross national boundaries.

The closure of these outposts directly flouts EU law on free movement within the Schengen area. European law allows for exceptional controls on internal border crossings for a maximum of 6 months at a time, but never indefinite closure. The issue has been taken to French national court and even raised by the European Parliament.

What the media scarcely expands upon is that the consequences of the Col’s closure for local people are enormous. Many of those who have come out to demonstrate are local farm producers who once crossed the Franco-Spanish border on a daily basis. On the Spanish side, Marta Carolla, who raises an ancient breed of semi-wild cattle, now has to make an hour-and-a-half long drive along the coast in order to round up animals that have strayed into French territory. The local co-operative at Espolla has also lost 20% of its revenue.

The stakes are even higher for those who see themselves first and foremost as Catalan, a region that spans parts of both France and Spain. On both sides of the national border, the Catalan language is widely spoken as a mother-tongue. Historical ties run deep, and the ability to cross the border with ease is a key part of life for these communities.

Many of the 300 protestors gathered today argue that the closure of the Col constitutes little more than symbolic politics and the manifestations of anti-immigrant sentiment. Not only is it ineffective in stemming irregular migration, they say, but the cost for local Catalan communities is too much to bear.

In order to make sense of why the French government insists on the closure of the border crossings it shares with Spain, the story of the Col de Banyuls needs to be seen in the wider context of French immigration policy.

Walking a Tightrope: The Wider Political Context and Anti-Immigration Sentiment in France

In April 2022 the French President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected for his second term. However, his far-right challenger, Marine Le Pen, won over a sizeable minority with 41.5% of votes. Le Pen had never before been so successful in an election. With the popularity of the far-right rapidly on the rise, the sensationalist topic of immigration increasingly dominates French politics.

Walking a tightrope, Emmanuel Macron’s position on immigration is veering to the right. According to a survey conducted by the CSA Institute, 67% of voters want a hardening of immigration policy. Eager to court voters who might otherwise turn to Le Pen, Macron’s stance on immigration increasingly reflects the anxieties of his nation.

Such anxieties are epitomised in the kind of rhetoric that Le Pen regularly contrives. In an interview with BBC’s Andrew Marr prior to the 2022 presidential election, Le Pen avows:

We are not going to welcome any more people, stop, we are full up! […] Do we want a multicultural society, following the model of the English-speaking world, where fundamental Islam is progressing and we see major religious claims, or do we want an independent nation, with people able to control their own destiny?

Despite denying accusations of racism, Le Pen’s language is often sensationalist. By constructing immigration as a threat to French identity and autonomy, it is easy to fall into the trap of feeling hostile towards migrants. In fact, Le Pen regularly compares migrants to terrorists and delinquents, whilst predicting that the French nation will soon be "submerged" by cultural others.

It is no wonder that Pen’s proposals on immigration policy are similarly extreme. In the run up to election, Le Pen promised that her government would immediately expel every migrant that enters France through irregular means. Under the proposed system, applications for asylum could only be made in prospective refugees’ country of origin, which rather misses the point that asylum seekers often flee with great urgency.

Although Le Pen was defeated during the 2022 elections, it is surely at the forefront of Macron’s mind that almost 42% of the electorate responded to Le Pen’s far-right rhetoric.

Perhaps it is for this reason that Macron has taken on Gerald Darmanin – someone akin to the UK’s own Suella Braverman – as Interior Minister. Hard-nosed and with a reputation of facing down voices of dissent wherever they are raised, one of Darminin’s current projects is yet another attempt to reform immigration law.

"migrants" and "terrorists" are routinely used interchangeably in French political dialogue

The proposed law will make deportations of rejected asylum applicants easier, especially for foreigners who commit crimes. It will also tighten up the requirements for residency and the renewal of long-term permits - and allow for mandatory fingerprinting.

At the same time as proposing these drastic measures, Darminin is offering a simplification of the process for obtaining work permits in key industries like construction and hospitality. It seems that migrants are only welcome in France if they meet labour deficits.

Regardless of employment, migrants are treated with great suspicion. Taking a leaf out of the far-right thesaurus, migrants and terrorists are routinely used interchangeably in French political dialogue. Those seeking to enter France seemingly have to prove their good intentions, as Darmanin makes clear when he distinguishes between "kind" and "nasty" foreigners.

On the Left is a coalition of parties, known under the acronym of ‘La Nupes’. It was formed prior to the 2022 presidential election as the only way of uniting the fractured left-wing in a viable opposition to the centre and the right-wing parties. Not surprisingly, it remains loud in its condemnation of the Macron government, accusing it of pandering to the extreme Right. For ‘La Nupes’, the closure of border crossings like the Col de Banyuls in the name of curbing migration is but one example of this wider trend.

Double Standards and Hypocrisy

Despite reconstructing migrants as terrorists and threatening to criminalise irregular entry, France prides itself on upholding so-called human rights. “France is and a will remain a place of refuge for all defenders of human rights”, Macron proclaimed as he launched the second round of the Marianne Initiative, which funds further studies in human rights research. But if ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ has been the French motto since the days of the Revolution, there is, at best, a lack of cohesion between noble principles and action.

France’s condemnation of Italy over the much-reported Ocean Viking incident similarly exposes that France is perhaps more interested in its reputation than realities. The Ocean Viking was carrying 234 migrants picked up from the Libyan coast and had attempted to dock in Italy, to the dismay of Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. When Meloni refused to receive the ship, Darminin called Meloni’s move ‘incomprehensible’, and accused Italy of ‘lack[ing] humanity’. Three weeks later, France allowed the Ocean Viking to dock in Toulon and now upholds the entire incident as evidence of French humanitarianism. Elided from this narrative are the three weeks of tortured wait that the migrants onboard were forced to suffer – for which all of Europe is guilty.

Accepting desperate migrants rescued at sea and championing human rights seems more of a tactical image-polishing exercise than evidence of French hospitality

Taking in the migrants trapped onboard the Ocean Viking certainly does reinforce a certain image of a liberal, welcoming France – an image which Macron and Darmanin tactically conjure when it suits their needs. However, the entire debacle obscures the grim reality that the next stages in applying for asylum in France are complicated and daunting. Only a total of 66 migrants are likely to be granted asylum in France, and that’s if they don’t simply travel onwards to other countries within the European Union.

The Ocean Viking story also overshadows France’s failure to provide for the thousands of migrants long left to fend for themselves on French streets. The squatter camp beneath the Métro in Paris’s 10th arrondissement has been home to around 300 homeless migrants for years. Regularly destroyed by police and then rebuilt by migrants with nowhere else to go, the government is yet to find a humane place in which to house these people.

In light of these events, when French ministers speak of humanity and fraternity whilst condemning other European governments, it begins to ring hollow and even smacks of hypocrisy. Accepting desperate migrants rescued at sea and championing human rights seems more of a tactical image-polishing exercise than evidence of French hospitality.

Who Gains, Who Loses?

It seems that French policy is largely aligned with appeasing an anxiety-riddled public in order to safeguard the careers of elite politicians. French ministers take on different stances on migration depending on whom they are trying to appease, with audiences as diverse as the French far-right and international EU policymakers.

The result is an unclear and hypocritical approach to immigration.

So the Col de Banyuls remains closed. The lives of people on either side of the border become victim to a knee-jerk xenophobia and the demonisation of immigrants as terrorists or criminals.

This is the face of a failed policy and of double standards, with France lauding itself as liberal and fair whilst equally playing on far-right sentiment.  Liberty, equality and fraternity – but only for nationals and a select few.