Immigrants in France: Marine le Pen Advocates a Point-based Criterion for Citizenship

New York – It seems that once again the scapegoat that will be used by France’s politicians during the next electoral campaign for the election of a new President next spring will be immigrants.

After the Minister of Interior Claude Gueant promulgated last year a restrictive law that literally bans recent foreign graduate students from working in France and tightens the condition for obtaining a student visa, Marine Le Pen, the new leader of the far-right Front National (National Front) said in an interview on TV channel France 5 on Sunday that, if elected President, she would advocate a new criterion for obtaining French citizenship.

By her plan, French citizens of foreign origin would be subjected to a point-based criterion inspired from the point scheme currently implemented for driving records.

Those who become French after having lived in the country for a long period or for having a French spouse, could lose their citizenship in they not respect France’s law, especially, the sacro-saint principle of laicism.

“Within 10 years one can lose French nationality if he commits crimes or offenses,” or if he does not aide by the rule of the Republic, she was quoted in the daily newspaper Le Parisien as saying.

The points that a French citizen of foreign origin loses are irrecoverable, which means that if someone reaches the threshold of points provided for in the citizenship, he or she loses his/ her citizenship. “One can’t recover one’s points,” she added.

Marine le Pen, intends to put an end to family reunifications and automatic citizenship, as well to give priority to “nationals” from France in terms of employment opportunities.

Le Pen did not address the legal, constitutional or human rights aspects of the proposed idea—all issues that are likely to make actual implementation of such a plan an uphill battle.

Editing by Ahmad Azizi