The new text which should be presented on Friday during a trip by Bruno Retailleau to Yvelines reflects the hard line of the tenant of Place Beauvau on immigration.
The Valls circular, taken in 2012 by the current Minister of Overseas Territories and, at the time, Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls, allowed each year the prefectures to regularize through work or for family reasons more than 30,000 without -papers.
According to this text, a foreigner in an irregular situation could request “exceptional admission to stay” for family, economic or student reasons.
This could be useful to bosses who are struggling to recruit and want to regularize employees hired “under the table” in order to avoid turnover; or to a school which mobilizes for a family threatened with eviction yet well integrated into the community, or in other cases.
In 2023, the circular allowed 34,724 people to obtain papers (+0.3% compared to 2022), according to data from the Ministry of the Interior: 11,525 for work, 22,167 for family reasons, and a thousand under student status.
And even if this pales in comparison to the large waves of regularizations under Mitterrand (130,000 regularizations out of 150,000 requests in 1981) or under Chevènement (80,000 regularizations out of 140,000 requests in 1998), now it is clear that even these “timid” figures are intended to decline.
It is clear that in 2025, the “lucid and balanced” immigration policy of the Valls era gives way to a clear desire to “control” more migratory flows, in particular through the fight against irregular immigration, alongside “strengthening the integration of foreigners in France”.
The clear change of direction also involves, it seems, more concise and laconic formulas: instead of 12 pages of the Valls circular, the Retailleau text, of which Le Figaro and AFP publish the correct sheets before its presentation by the minister this Friday during a trip to Yvelines and sending to the prefects, only includes 3.
So, what do these new guidelines contain?
At least 7 years of presence, “indications” of integration including language proficiency
“The exceptional admission to residence route (AES) is not the normal route of immigration and access to residence. Targeting foreigners in an irregular situation, it must remain a route exceptional“, writes the minister in his circular.
If the Retailleau circular does not strictly speaking change the criteria for obtaining this exceptional admission, it clearly asks prefects to tighten the screw in terms of regularization.
Thus, in search of “relevant integration indices”, the text increases from five years to “at least seven years” the duration of presence required on the national territory for a foreigner who requests papers under the AES.
Continuing the line outlined in 2024 by Gérald Darmanin, the predecessor of Bruno Retailleau places Beauvau, in the law on immigration, the new text considers that “the level of requirements in terms of integration of foreigners into our society must be strengthened, particularly through their commitment to respect the values of the Republic “.
These values that the applicant undertakes to respect by contract are, in the text, “personal freedom, freedom of expression and conscience, equality between women and men, the dignity of the human person, the motto and symbols of the Republic within the meaning of article 2 of the Constitution, territorial integrity, defined by national borders, and secularism”.
The undocumented foreigner’s adherence to the principles of the Republic also requires mastery of the French language, which should be certified.
If under Valls, it was generally enough to have a “ at least basic oral mastery of the French language” (assessed in particular when submitting the application), the Retailleau circular recommends “the proof of a French diploma or a linguistic certification, delivered by a duly approved organization, or any other proof of language proficiency. »
Absence of threat to public order; the OTQFs
Excluded from exceptional admissions to stay are foreigners likely to constitute a threat to public order.
The refusal of the request should, according to Bruno Retailleau, be “systematically accompanied by a measure relating to the obligation to leave French territory” (OQTF).
The French State is a notorious poor student in the execution of these OQTFs, with barely a 7% success rate, as the Prime Minister recalled, François Bayrou, during his general policy speech on January 14.
This OQTF acronym also figures prominently in criminal statistics, and cases of assault, rape or burglary by an illegal alien forced to leave the territory, sometimes even a repeat offender, are widely reported. covered in the national press.
Bruno Retailleau also targets “gruesome” situations when the applicant for regularization sometimes attested to the length of his presence on the national territory by an obligation to leave French territory which he had avoided.
Professional regularizations must increase, students and families must decrease
Provided for by the immigration law, promulgated at the beginning of 2024, the update of the list of professions in tension in which undocumented workers can be regularized should be published “at the end of February”, affirmed the Minister of Labor, Astrid Panosyan -Bouvet.
This text must also tighten the admission criteria which, remember, allowed 34,724 people to obtain papers in 2023, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
These foreign workers (already employed through work in restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes, catering, construction, agriculture or boilermaking) represented a third of regularizations on average.
If their share will “slightly increase”, according to a prefect cited by Le Figaro, the students (a thousand regularized per year on average) will perhaps be a little fewer in number.
The impact will especially be felt on family immigration – which until now represented two thirds of AES. Likewise, “a prefect” predicts “8,000 to 10,000 fewer regularized for private and family life”.
According to sources at the Ministry of the Interior, it is currently easier to enter France illegally and subsequently request “family” regularization rather than requesting a visa or reunification for the same reasons due to the strict conditions. on income and housing.
As Le Figaro believes, the Retailleau circular should reduce the flow of regularizations by around a thirdto carry them from approximately 30,000 per year to 20,000if the objectives are achieved.
All this, in order to respond, in the mind of the executive, to the expectations of the French that translates – once again, in the minds of politicians – the growing vote for the National Rally with, in particular, its very harsh rhetoric on immigration.