“Welcome less but better to give yourself time to integrate”. This is what the former Renaissance deputy Florian Bachelier proposes in a interview at Figaro this Friday, June 23. The former first quaestor of the Assembly, now a lawyer and founder of the laboratory of ideas “La France unie”, asks to “give the floor” to the “sovereign people”, while the debates around the project of immigration law.
Before the examination of this text in the National Assembly, a priori expected in November, the Ministry of the Interior posted Thursday June 22 the final statistics on immigration in 2022. Each year, the General Directorate for Foreigners in France (DGEF) of the Ministry of the Interior provides statistics on immigration, asylum and access to French nationality.
According to these data, immigration continued to increase in 2022, after having come to a halt in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, France issued 1.7 million visas, compared to 733,070 in 2021, an increase of 137.1%. However, this number remains much lower than the total of visas issued before the health crisis, since in 2019, Paris had issued 3.5 million visas, as recalled www.vie-publique.fr
The issuance of residence permits on the rise
France issued 316,174 first residence permits last year, up 11.8%. For the first time, the first residence permits issued to students (101,250, up 14.3%) are the leading reason for issuance, ahead of family reasons (95,507, +2.5%), immigration economic (51,673, +40.9%) and humanitarian (40,549, -3.4%), notes the Ministry of the Interior.
The main countries of origin of beneficiaries of first residence permits remain Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Nationals of these Maghreb States total 90,058 residence permits granted, or 28.5% of the total.
The United States is now in 4th position, with 12,220 titles awarded, up 32.6% compared to last year. The Ministry of the Interior also notes a notable increase in the number of residence permits granted to Indian nationals, with 9,081 permits granted, an increase of 36.9%.
An increase in exceptional admissions to stay
The most scrutinized data, remember The echoes, concerns what Place Beauvau calls exceptional admission to stay (AES), allowing immigrants in an irregular situation to be issued a residence permit for family or economic reasons. Their number rose to 34,320 in 2022, an increase of 8.8% compared to 2021 and to a level higher than that of 2019 (30,619). Two-thirds of these AES have a “family reason” and show a very slight increase, while the remaining third is for “economic reason” and is experiencing a stronger increase (+24.7%).
These AES, issued by the prefects, are framed by the Valls circular dated November 2012. The executive wants to include the provisions of this circular in the immigration law, with the creation of the so-called “short-term occupations” residence permit. This provision is particularly criticized by Les Républicains and the National Rally.
In addition, 19,429 foreigners in an irregular situation left French territory in 2022, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior. The total number of removals of foreigners in an irregular situation is up compared to 2021 (15,396 removals, i.e. +14.9% compared to 2021). The figure remains below that before the health crisis.
Asylum applications mainly from Afghanistan
In addition, in 2022, 155,773 asylum applications (including minors) were made at one-stop asylum application offices (Guda). This represents an increase of 28.3% compared to 2021 and a return to the level observed before the health crisis, since 151,283 asylum applications were made in 2019.
Afghanistan (22,529), Bangladesh (10,549), Turkey (9,952) and Georgia (8,867) are the top countries of origin for the first asylum applications.
In addition, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) and the National Court for the Right of Asylum (CNDA) issued 56,276 decisions granting protection status (refugee or subsidiary protection, excluding accompanying minors), i.e. an increase of 3.5% compared to 2021.