1. Keeping immigration popular is important, and family reunification has often been the biggest target of criticism in France. Obviously people will still talk aboutit the real impact is fewer
2. Immigration policy
3. I think it’s highly plausible that this comes from both different sources of migration and from economic / social development in sources countries,people study more, marry later, and women now migrate on their own.
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Family reunification is one of those hot-button issues that is often unfairly criticised. Politicians regularly use it to condemn immigration policies they deem too lenient. “When it comes to family reunification, there are aspects that need to be strengthened,” said Aurore Bergé, Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight against Discrimination, on 19 April on Europe 1. In Le Figaro on 31 March, presidential candidate Edouard Philippe proposed a “reservation of interpretation regarding Article 8” of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the right to private and family life. In January, it was the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, who suggested suspending family reunification for “two or three years”.
However, this route into France accounts for only 5% of the first residence permits issued each year to spouses of non-European foreigners, amounting to an average of 11,000 permits per year between 2020 and 2023, according to a report by the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) published on Wednesday 29 April. This figure has been steadily declining, as it was two to three times higher in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Family reunification is only one aspect of family immigration – which is also on a downward trend – and which also includes residence permits issued to the families of French nationals or other European Union citizens.
The family reunification scheme in the narrow sense was introduced in 1976, and was intended for the spouses and children of migrant workers settled in France. Its steady decline over time can be explained by several factors. Eligibility criteria have been successively tightened (although Algerians are partly exempt from these stricter rules due to the 1968 bilateral agreement). “In 1976, anyone applying to bring their family over had to prove they had been legally resident for one year,” reports researcher Julia Descamps, the author of the study. In 1993, this period was extended to two years, then reduced again to one year in 1998 before being set at eighteen months in 2006, when Nicolas Sarkozy was Home Secretary. ”
Furthermore, since 1993, a minimum required income has been asked of the applicant, and since 1999, criteria regarding the size of housing have been introduced. Thus, whilst 82% of family reunification applications were granted in 2023, those that were refused were mainly rejected ‘due to lack of resources (11%) or because the required housing conditions were not met (3%)’, particularly in the Paris region, sue to higher pressure on the housing market.
“One possible explanation for the decline in family reunification is a sense of resignation,” suggests Julia Descamps. But it can also be attributed to the enlargement of the European Union, which has increased the number of Europeans eligible for other forms of residence. Finally, more broadly speaking, immigration for family reasons is declining in favour of other legal grounds such as student, work-related and asylum immigrations.
Furthermore, the INED study shows that the scheme established in 1976, which was overwhelmingly used by men to bring their wives to France, is increasingly out of step with the contemporary realities of migrants, “who are often single and childless on arrival, having entered France on student visas”.
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!ping FRANCE
1. Keeping immigration popular is important, and family reunification has often been the biggest target of criticism in France. Obviously people will still talk aboutit the real impact is fewer
2. Immigration policy
3. I think it’s highly plausible that this comes from both different sources of migration and from economic / social development in sources countries,people study more, marry later, and women now migrate on their own.
Family reunification is one of those hot-button issues that is often unfairly criticised. Politicians regularly use it to condemn immigration policies they deem too lenient. “When it comes to family reunification, there are aspects that need to be strengthened,” said Aurore Bergé, Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight against Discrimination, on 19 April on Europe 1. In Le Figaro on 31 March, presidential candidate Edouard Philippe proposed a “reservation of interpretation regarding Article 8” of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the right to private and family life. In January, it was the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, who suggested suspending family reunification for “two or three years”.
However, this route into France accounts for only 5% of the first residence permits issued each year to spouses of non-European foreigners, amounting to an average of 11,000 permits per year between 2020 and 2023, according to a report by the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) published on Wednesday 29 April. This figure has been steadily declining, as it was two to three times higher in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Family reunification is only one aspect of family immigration – which is also on a downward trend – and which also includes residence permits issued to the families of French nationals or other European Union citizens.
The family reunification scheme in the narrow sense was introduced in 1976, and was intended for the spouses and children of migrant workers settled in France. Its steady decline over time can be explained by several factors. Eligibility criteria have been successively tightened (although Algerians are partly exempt from these stricter rules due to the 1968 bilateral agreement). “In 1976, anyone applying to bring their family over had to prove they had been legally resident for one year,” reports researcher Julia Descamps, the author of the study. In 1993, this period was extended to two years, then reduced again to one year in 1998 before being set at eighteen months in 2006, when Nicolas Sarkozy was Home Secretary. ”
Furthermore, since 1993, a minimum required income has been asked of the applicant, and since 1999, criteria regarding the size of housing have been introduced. Thus, whilst 82% of family reunification applications were granted in 2023, those that were refused were mainly rejected ‘due to lack of resources (11%) or because the required housing conditions were not met (3%)’, particularly in the Paris region, sue to higher pressure on the housing market.
“One possible explanation for the decline in family reunification is a sense of resignation,” suggests Julia Descamps. But it can also be attributed to the enlargement of the European Union, which has increased the number of Europeans eligible for other forms of residence. Finally, more broadly speaking, immigration for family reasons is declining in favour of other legal grounds such as student, work-related and asylum immigrations.
Furthermore, the INED study shows that the scheme established in 1976, which was overwhelmingly used by men to bring their wives to France, is increasingly out of step with the contemporary realities of migrants, “who are often single and childless on arrival, having entered France on student visas”.