Rethink French immigration law, university leaders urge Macron

France’s newly passed hard-line immigration law will repel international students and stifle French research, sector leaders have warned.

The controversial new legislation, approved by the French parliament last month, divided president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party, while the far-right, anti-immigration politician Marine Le Pen, leader of National Rally, heralded it as an “ideological victory”.

The bill includes migration quotas, restrictions on citizenship for those born in France to non-citizens, cuts to migrants’ benefit eligibility and the potential to remove French citizenship from dual nationals convicted of certain crimes.

Despite France’s goal of attracting 500,000 international students by 2027, the new law contains several measures that many fear will dissuade them. To obtain a residence permit, students from overseas would have to pay an as-yet undetermined “return deposit” in order to cover potential “removal costs”. The deposit would be returned to them when they leave France upon their permit’s expiration or when they obtain a new visa.

International students would also have to demonstrate the “real and serious nature of their studies” on a yearly basis, Le Monde reported, or risk having their residence permit withdrawn.

The legislation also makes higher university registration fees for non-European Union students compulsory, after their introduction in 2019 on a voluntary basis decided by universities. While French students and those from within the EU pay €170 (£146) to register for a bachelor’s degree and €243 for a master’s, non-EU students will now be obliged to pay €2,770 and €3,770 respectively.

A joint statement released by France Universités, the Conference of Deans of French Schools of Engineering (CDEFI) and several student unions called on Mr Macron to challenge the law.

Alexis Michel, director of the Brest National School of Engineering and president of CDEFI’s Europe and International Commission, called the return deposit a “mark of suspicion” that reflected “a desire to select students through money” rather than merit. “The idea that candidates for migration present themselves as students to circumvent the procedures is a statistical fiction,” he said.

“CDEFI requests the removal of the return deposit and waits for the president of the republic to exercise his constitutional prerogatives to provoke a new deliberation of the bill in parliament,” Professor Michel said.

Both Mr Macron and prime minister Élisabeth Borne have already partially walked back the return deposit measure during media appearances, according to Le Monde, with the former saying it was “not a good idea” and the latter commenting, “Is this the best system? Not necessarily.”

Sylvie Retailleau, the minister of higher education and research, submitted her resignation over the bill, which Mr Macron rejected. France Universités later said the minister had received “strong commitments” from the president and prime minister, pledging to overturn “discriminatory and ineffective measures” including the deposit.

Backlash to the law, Professor Michel said, was universal among higher education institutions and student organisations, “A unique situation, which highlights the issue and its urgency.”

“A retrospective look at 50 years of migration policy in France clearly shows that each time measures have come to regulate the conditions of stay of foreign students in one way or another, a drop or stagnation in incoming flows has been observed,” he continued.

Restrictions on international students would compromise France’s scientific output, Professor Michel cautioned, with 40 per cent of doctoral students currently coming from overseas. “Their recruitment is global and increasingly competitive,” he said.

“The law passed symbolically sends a message of closure to students who often have a choice in their destinations; they are invited to look elsewhere.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com