The French Prime Minister is set to unveil a raft of measures as part of the government's new policy on immigration. Here's a look at what's on the table - including quotas for economic migrants and restrictions on access to healthcare.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe presented the "immigration plan" to a group of MPs from the ruling party La Republique en Marche (LREM) on Monday evening and on Wednesday will present them to ministers in the government.
It comes after President Emmanuel Macron had signalled a tougher line on immigration in the second half of his mandate, arguing the government must stop voters drifting to the far-right.
"France cannot host everyone if it wants to host people well," he said. France received a record 122,743 asylum requests last year, up 22 percent from the year before.
Among the measures Philippe was to announce on Tuesday was a toughening up of the rules around how asylum seekers and migrants can access healthcare in France.
Philippe told MPs on Monday he intends to fight against "fraud and abuse" when it comes to asylum seekers accessing France's health system.
Asylum seekers in France can access vital healthcare via France's Aide medicale d'Etat (AME). According to AFP some 318,000 benefit from the system each year.
But Macron himself has said he wants to end cases where foreigners arrive in France on a three month tourist visa but stay in the country and can access healthcare via AME.
According to press reports in France on Tuesday in future only undocumented migrants who have been in France for three months will get access to AME and it will become harder for asylum seekers to access care for non-urgent medical conditions.
The government also intends to toughen checks on those migrants who claim benefits, with suggestions that some asylum seekers have been able to claim two types on state benefits.
The government will also impose a three month "waiting period" (delai de carence) before asylum seekers can access the basic PUMa (protection universelle maladie) health cover, which is for accessible to anyone who resides in France.
Currently asylum seekers can apply to access the PUMa system as soon as they have lodged their application.
Quotas for industries in need of migrant workers
But the measures drawn up by the government don't just revolve around making France a harder place to be for asylum-seekers.
The government wants certain sectors, which are most in need of workers, to be able to recruit migrant workers. The PM has already said that the idea of quotas for economic migrants in certain industries should no longer be taboo.
"The idea is to have quantified targets, or quotas," the Labour Minister Muriel Pénicaud told BFMTV on Tuesday morning.
"This is about France hiring based on its needs. It's a new approach, similar to what is done in Canada or Australia," Penicaud told BFM television.
The list of sectors in which companies will be able to recruit migrant workers, will be updated each year in order to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of employers in different regions of France.
Currently employers have to justify why a French citizen cannot be hired in a complex administrative process, which resulted in around 33,000 economic migrants being granted visas last year.
Construction, hotels and restaurants, and some retailing sectors have long complained of a shortage of people willing to take what is often low-paying work.
Information technology and engineering industries, by contrast, say France does not produce enough qualified candidates.
Penicaud did not say how many foreign workers would be granted visas, nor if an applicant's nationality would be taken into account, a proposal aired by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe last month.
France also intends to put more resources into reducing the time it takes for asylum applications to be processed.
The government passed a law in 2018 aiming to being the average time down from one year to six months, but according to Le Monde newspaper it has failed to have any impact.
The French government also intends to push for greater European cooperation to secure the EU's borders.
Macron has noted France had seen a sharp increase in the numbers of people asking for asylum since the 2017 presidential election and said much tighter European cooperation was needed.
"There is not enough cooperation in Europe and we need to look at this migratory phenomenon and take decisions," he said.
The French president, whose first term expires in 2022, is keenly aware that his biggest political rival remains Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Rally party which has built its popularity on a strong anti-immigration stance.
"In order to be able to welcome everyone properly, we should not be too attractive a country," said Macron.
SOURCE: The Local
