Immigrants sent to rural areas: Emmanuel Macron’s new project

An announcement that had the effect of a bomb. Thursday, September 15, the President of the Republic spoke to the prefects. During this speech, he spoke on the subject of immigration, confirming his desire to act: “a bill relating to asylum, therefore to immigration in the Republic, will be tabled in early 2023” .

In his view, the current French policy on the subject is “both ineffective and inhumane, ineffective because we find ourselves with more foreigners in an irregular situation than many of our neighbours, inhumane because this pressure means that we too often welcomes them badly,” he said.

Thus, to deal with the migratory flow, Emmanuel Macron assured the prefects that it was necessary to “reform our procedures to be able to go much faster and it is essential”, he explains.

For this, he therefore believes that it is necessary to “differentiate the procedures”, “accelerate the instructions” and also “integrate much faster and much better those who even have a provisional title by language and by work”.

But, during this speech, the Head of State uttered a sentence that particularly marked the spirits and caused a lot of ink to flow. Indeed, he pleaded for a better distribution of foreigners, especially in “rural areas, which are losing population”.

“The conditions for their reception will be much better than if we put them in areas which are already densely populated”, he justified, adding that this could, in addition, prevent the closure of classes in schools or colleges in these areas.

Faced with such a declaration, the right and the far right hastened to show their dissatisfaction on social networks. “Emmanuel Macron wants to distribute foreigners in an irregular situation in rural areas. We consider that they must go back home. Unable to apply the law, he wants to change it”, declared Marine Le Pen on Twitter.

Like his former rival for the 2022 presidential election, Éric Zemmour said in turn. “Emmanuel Macron says it loud and clear: the Great Replacement is a necessity for him” thus taking up this recurring concept in his speeches. Same story at Les Républicains since Nadine Morano also castigated the “big replacement orchestrated by the State”.

For the time being, this bill is not yet relevant and should therefore continue to make political representatives of all stripes react. It should be the subject of a debate in the National Assembly as well as in the Senate in the fall of 2022.