LEGAL UPDATES
| 1997 – 2001 |
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History Immigration Through 1945 1945–1973 1974–1980 1980–1985 1986–1988 1989–1992 1993–1994 1996 1997–2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Social Security Social Welfare in Europe: An Historical Overview Taxation History of Taxation in France First century BC until 756 AD Church tithes Eleventh century until The French Revolution 1790–1914 Republican Tax from 1799 to 1945 from 1948 to 1976 from 1982 to 1999 from 2000 to 2006 Bibliography History of the OECD Model Tax Convention 3–14 February 1997 – On 3 February, the Human Rights League raised a call “against the Debré Law”, signed by 150 personalities, demanding that the immigration bill up for examination on the 4th be removed from consideration, that there be a moratorium on expulsions, and that undocumented aliens be legalized. On 8 and 9 February, the left-wing mayors of Paris and the Paris area organized “civil baptisms” for undocumented foreigners, who were sponsored by various personalities. On 11 February, 59 film directors launched a call for civil disobedience against the immigration laws. The Minister of Justice Jacques Toubon made a radio announcement judging the call for civil disobedience to be inadmissible. Eric Raoult, Minister for Cities and Integration, invited the film-makers to come spend a month in a difficult housing project in Seine-Saint-Denis, “to see that integration isn’t make believe”. February and March 1997 – Parliament debated and passed the immigration bill. On 27 March, it was submitted to the Constitutional Council. April 1997 – On 22 April, the Constitutional Council declared that two provisions of the immigration bill were unconstitutional (police consultation of files on asylum seekers and absence of renewal of 10-year residence card to those who receive it rightfully) (Decision no. 97-398 DC dated 22 April). On 24 April, act no. 97-396 regarding various immigration provisions was promulgated (JO no. 97 dated 25 April). June 1997 – On 10 June, Jacques Rigaudiat, social advisor to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, receives undocumented immigrants at Matignon. The same day, the prime minister’s services announced partial legalization of undocumented aliens. Reactions: satisfaction from human rights and antiracists organizations (LDH, Licra, MRAP, SOS-Racisme) and criticism from the opposition, who refer to “the risk of stoking illegal immigration”. On 19 June, in his general policy declaration, Lionel Jospin announced that the next parliamentary session would “reexamine all” immigration and nationality legislation, prepared by an interministerial project led by political analyst Patrick Weil, that prefects would immediately reexamine the situation of undocumented aliens, and that automatic acquisition of French citizenship would be reestablished for children of foreigners born in France. On 24 June, Jean-Pierre Chevènement issued a legalization circular to explain to the Prefects, who met in Paris, the immediate but “temporary” provision to legalize certain illegal aliens (notably for spouses of French nationals or of legal aliens, for seriously ill foreigners, students and people who do not have refugee status, but who are in danger in their countries). 31 July 1997 – Political analyst Patrick Weil submited two reports to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin on immigration and on citizenship. Without repealing the “Pasqua-Debré Laws”, Jospin proposed the following: reinforcing asylum rights, lightening formalities for entry into France, respecting family life more (notably making it possible to get a residence permit based on respecting private and family life), better prevention of illegal work, better reception policies for foreign students in France, and reinforcing rights to citizenship based on place of birth, notably by removing the obligation for foreign children to declare their wish to become French before obtaining citizenship. September 1997 – On 3 September, an interministerial meeting about the immigration bills was held: lodging certificates were maintained, administrative detention was lengthened to 14 days, without establishing judicial detention. On 15 September, the government sent the bills concerning citizenship and entry and residence conditions for foreigners in France to the Council of State, the High Council on Integration (HCI) and to the National Advisory Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) for their opinion. October 1997 – On 1 October, that CNCDH affirmed that the nationality and immigration bills are “in-progress”, and proposed 31 modifications, making the bills more liberal, notably establishing full rights to citizenship based on place of birth, replacing lodging certificates with “simple accommodation certificates”, generalizing family reunification, and eliminating administrative detention. On 9 October, the Council of State approved the immigration and nationality bills, but requested that administrative detention be limited to a maximum of 12 days. On 15 October, the Cabinet passed the two immigration and citizenship bills. On 16 October, Jack Lang, the socialist chair of the Foreign Affairs Commission at the National Assembly, announced on radio that he regretted that the government “had not decided to clearly repeal the Pasqua-Debré Laws”. December 1997 – Sami Naïr, technical advisor in charge of integration and codevelopment with the Interior Minister, submitted to Lionel Jospin proposals from the interministerial working group he led regarding cooperation policies with countries with high emigration towards France. 12–31 January 1998 – On 12 January, Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement presented his new year’s wishes to the press and announced that 15,700 undocumented immigrants had been legalized as a result of the 24 June 1997 circular. On 22 January, a circular aimed at Prefects was published, organizing the return to their home country of the undocumented immigrants who had not been legalized: return trips would be financed up to 6,500 francs per adult (and 900 francs per child), and there would be the possibility to have “psychological and social aid”. The Office of International Migrations (OMI) was placed in charge of this measure. On 31 January, a 2,000-person demonstration was held in Paris, demanding that all undocumented immigrants who had applied be legalized. 17 March 1998 – Nationality Act no. 98-170 of 16 March 1998 was published in the JO, making it possible for children born in France to foreign parents to ask for French citizenship as early as the age of 13 with their parents’ authorization, and as early as 16 without parental authorization. 11 May 1998 – Act no. 98-349 regarding entry and residence of foreigners in France and the right to asylum was promulgated after the Constitutional Council (by decision no. 98-399 of 5 May) had declared it constitutional (only article 13 regarding criminal immunity of foreigner-aid associations was declared unconstitutional) (JO no. 109 dated 11-12 May). 23 June 1998 – Decree no. 98-502 eliminated the lodging certificate, which had been established in 1982; the certificate was replaced by an accommodation certificate that was to be certified either by the local city hall, the police station or the gendarmerie. It is a simple formality whose goal is to verify the signer’s identity and the proof of lodging foreseen for welcoming foreign visitors. July 1988 – In a circular dated 16 July 1998, the government officially requested that Prefects depart from the law by adopting a simplified introduction formality for computer engineers. 29 October 1998 – An informal summit of EU justice and interior ministers was held in Vienna (Austria): they discussed a bill presented by the Austrian presidency regarding European asylum and immigration policy that aimed at adopting a “uniform” asylum rights policy throughout the EU. 8 January 1999 – The first results from the operation legalizing undocumented immigrants initiated by the June 1997 circular were published: 80,000 immigrants legalized; 63,000 rejected; a thousand applications still being processed. 18 January 1999 – An Interior Ministry circular created the Commissions départementales d’accès à la citoyenneté, or CODAC (Local Citizenship Access Commissions), to identify cases of discrimination in employment, lodging, access to public services and to leisure activities, and to formulate proposals to favour the integration of young people from immigrant backgrounds. August and September 1999 – The Sangatte warehouse was opened to house Polish, Kosovar, Iranian, Iraqi and then Afghan asylum seekers turned away from England. After being closed for a few weeks, on 24 September, the warehouse was reopened, and its management was handed over to the Red Cross. 17 September 1999 – An informal meeting of European justice and interior ministers was held in Turku (Finland): France and Germany presented a document defining the main lines of a common asylum and immigration policy; the ministers discussed the harmonization of immigration policies and agreed in principle on developing a unified asylum system. 1 October 1999 – Alain Juppé published an article in Le Monde developing the idea that Europe “will be needing foreign manpower”. 4 October 1999 – During a meeting of European justice and interior ministers held in Luxembourg to prepare the next Tampere (Finland) summit, France, Germany and the United Kingdom presented a joint contribution on immigration policy: they rejected “zero immigration” and the “total freedom of establishment”; they welcomed defining a co-development policy with migrant-sending countries. 27 June 2000 – The European Council’s European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance issues a report that invites France to revise its “Republican egalitarian model” due to the discrimination encountered, in particular, by young people with immigrant backgrounds (access to employment, lodging and public place, police behavior). 8 January 2001 – Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant visited the new transit zone in the Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, which was set aside for foreigners not admitted onto French national territory when they arrive in France: the transit zone “is a place of balance where the two obligations of controlling borders and welcoming fugitives occur on a daily basis”. April 2001 – After carrying out sixteen visits between November 2000 and March 2001 to lodging zones and to the Roissy airport terminals, were people arriving illegally in France were held, three associations—ANAFE (national association for border assistance to foreigners), Amnesty International, and the ecumenical association la Cimade—made public two reports denouncing the “violated rights” of foreigners. October 2001 – In a circular dated 22 October 2001, Elisabeth Guigou, the Minister of Employment and Solidarity, repealed the citizenship requirement that had until then been required to hold upper management positions in the Social Security system. The Gisti (an association providing information and support to immigrants) congratulated this decision and “hopes that Mrs. Guigou’s initiative will gain ground and that the government will open other closed employment opportunities”. 20 November 2001 – Several associations defending foreigners, along with charities and trade unions launched a campaign called “One sentence, that’s all”, meant to mobilize public opinion against double sentencing (foreign delinquents being expulsed after having served a prison sentence). This campaign, initiated by the Cimade, began on the day Bertrand Tavernier launched his film Histoires de vies brisées, the story of ten hunger strikers who had been subjected to doubled sentencing, in Lyon in 1998. 22 November 2001 – Driss El Yazami, general representative of the association Générique and vice-president of the Human Rights League, and Rémy Schwartz, counsel of Council of State, submitted to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin their report on creating immigration-related places of meeting and memory. |
| Last Updated on Thursday, 08 October 2009 17:37 |
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