Inter-Union Appeal Against the Sarkozy Law on Immigration

At the moment when, after the National Assembly, the Sarkozy law was adopted in the Senate, it is urgent that the trade unions unite and mobilize against this cynical policy of so-called “chosen” immigration.

This reform marks a serious social regression. It violates the fundamental principles of the right to work as well as the social rights provided for in the preamble to the 1958 Constitution.

Insecurity will be the rule for the granting of a residence permit linked to private and family life. Article 3 provides that the temporary residence card is withdrawn if its holder no longer fulfills one of the conditions for its issue. This places immigrant workers in an unacceptable situation of subordination to their employer. The breach of the employment contract would result in the withdrawal of the residence permit.

The link thus created between the precariousness of the stay and the precariousness of the work, the development of precarious contracts and the compromised access to the industrial tribunal mark the stages of social regression.

After the CNE, the CDD “seniors” and although having retreated on the CPE with the mobilization of the youth, employers and government continue the offensive of generalized insecurity of employees in our country.

Unions must remain vigilant against anything that contributes to divide or put employees in competition with each other. Faced with this conception of the “disposable worker”, this immigration reform will only have the effect of forcing even more immigrant workers into clandestinity, thus giving pride of place to unscrupulous bosses who do not bother with the labor law.

By tightening the right to family reunification, the law will make life untenable for thousands of families. Admittedly, the circular of October 31, 2005 gave a little respite to schoolchildren and their families until the end of the school year. Admittedly, the mobilizations forced Sarkozy to step back and consider (on June 13) the regularization of certain families with at least one minor child in school, subject to certain conditions. The fact remains that it is in the last resort the Prefect who decides and that the circular is far from settling all cases: young people who entered France after 13 years, young unaccompanied minors who can be expelled from their majority, families with young children, the other undocumented migrants … for all of them, it’s scheduled expulsion and child hunting! Scandalous law, therefore, inadmissible, revolting.

The unions call for the mobilization of all against this regressive law. They join the appeal of the collective Unie Contre l’Immigration Disposable (UCIJ, nearly 700 associations) and the Education Sans Frontière Network (RESF, national education staff, parents of pupils, students, high school pupils, secondary school pupils …) for the day of demonstrations on July 1, 2006:

 Against evictions;

 For the withdrawal of the Sarkozy law on immigration.

The Paris demonstration will leave at 3:00 p.m. Place de la Bastille