Two stories about immigration caught my eye this week.
Firstly, here in France, applications for full citizenship are down in 2025 following a tightening of the guidelines issued to the Prefectures. Not only have they increased the required level of French language skill from B1 to B2, but the evidence required to demonstrate “integration” has been increased from verbal claims to written attestations about volunteering, membership of associations and attendance at memorial events. Perhaps, most significantly, for retirees, there is now a requirement that the majority of a person’s income must be sourced in France, so if you are retiring from another country with a pension, that no longer counts as “economic integration”. Well, that’s the end of the road for me! In addition, Justice Minister, Gerard Darmanin. has proposed a two or three year “pause” on ALL legal migration. The overall message here is that the current French authorities see immigration as a bad thing, and despite the fact that almost 10% of the population is of foreign origin, they have no plans to facilitate integration of those 6 million people into society.
The second article which caught my attention is really the polar opposite of the first. Spain has proposed that the 500,000 “undocumented” people living in Spain can apply for a one year residency permit which is extendable, legalising the position of half a million foreigners, as part of an over all strategy of integration based on human rights and fairness, which, they believe, will improve both Spanish society and the economy. The Far Right don’t like this, of course, arguing amongst other things, that this will make Spain more attractive to immigrants, and that as their numbers increase, then the pay and conditions of Spanish workers will be put at risk.
I was never a fan of Theresa May’s ‘Hostile Environment” policy. It strikes me as bizarre to think the best way to stop people wanting to come and live in your country is to make living in your country more miserable for them. If the aim of a government is to make their country safer and better for the whole population, it’s counterintuitive to try and make life more precarious and worse for SOME of them.
The economic argument is not as simple as the Right Wing populists argue either. The Spanish government argues that active integration of immigrants into the agriculture and care sectors, amongst others, for example, will plug the existing employment gaps in those areas. But, in addition to that, what about the immigrants who set up businesses and employ those currently unemployed? And what about those with skills who can then teach and train others, enabling many more people in Spain to get better jobs with better skills?
Perhaps the worst stories about immigration currently are those flowing from the USA which seems to have determined that getting rid of as many black or brown immigrants as possible will be an over all benefit. Deploying masked, armed men to workplaces, schools, courts and homes, snatching people without recourse to lawyers or courts and putting them in detention centres then sending them abroad, is surely one of the harshest regimes of treatment of immigrants in the world.
Meanwhile Right Wing populist parties across the planet spread an increasingly nasty, prejudiced narrative about immigration, as if it is the greatest, even only, cause of hardship in any country. These narratives are sheer xenophobia, labelling foreigners as criminals or scroungers.
I say, good on the Spanish! Let’s hope their strategy pays off and that other countries begin to follow. Human beings migrate. Always have done, always will. All human beings should have equal rights. They are all of equal value.
Diversity is Nature’s super-power.
I believe everyone who lives in the same country should have the same rights, and, be valued the same. I totally oppose discriminatory treatment based on the country of origin of a person, or their family.
We need to work harder at integration – not just of immigrants into countries, but of whole populations. Inequality has reached record levels, resulting in many more people living lives of exclusion and hardship. Let’s tackle that. Let’s make our countries more equal, more just, and more fair. Not less so.
“Integration for everyone!”
Heroes Not Zombies 