On immigration
I haven’t talked about French politics in a while, because I tend to assume not everyone follows it. Understandably: not everyone is French. However, some news occasionally pop up in my home country that I believe are worth discussing regardless if you live in Kolkata or New York. These are such days.
Following the events that unfolded this weekend in Kabul, French president Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation on TV last night to update his countrymen on the situation in Afghanistan and what was being done to help out French citizens who were (still) based there. In doing so, he noted that the country would have to “protect itself from important irregular migratory flows”. While the wording of that sentence displays full well the subtlety of French political newspeak (sounds even better in its native tongue too), it is what lays underneath it that truly calls for concern, based on the following two key arguments:
Afghanistan has fallen back into the hands of the Taliban a few dozen hours ago. The only way out of the country is via the Kabul airport, which is currently one of the most heavily guarded locations on earth. An official German plane flew out with only 7 people on board today because other designated passengers couldn’t make it inside the building (mostly because they are likely “Western-friendly” and therefore run the risk of getting arrested by Taliban guards at the gates). Also, Afghanistan is about as far from Syria as Syria is from France: that is one long trip for anyone thinking of leaving their country. Not impossible, just extremely difficult. In other words, the looming threat of a migratory flow coming from Afghanistan is only really looming in frightful people’s minds.
Regardless the likelihood of Afghan immigrants knocking on France’s door any time soon, President Macron’s position is problematic on a fundamental level. The idea of taking a defensive posture in the wake of an unfolding humanitarian disaster — arguably worsened by one-time French military presence, one might add — is ill-advised at best, nefarious at worst. This should not be the first reaction coming out of the French President’s mouth, a country that will otherwise gleefully remind the world that it outlined the very notion of human rights a few centuries ago. Make no mistake: emigration is never anyone’s first option. Rather, it tends to come as a last resort when faced with local instability, extreme poverty and/or wartime situations. Telling desperate people that you will not open the door will not make them stop: they will try finding a window instead, risking even more in the process…
President Macron is not the worst of the lot. I voted for him — twice — in the last presidential election, and I will likely vote for him again in the next one. But it is precisely that upcoming vote that dictates such short term, tactical talking points: trying to please enough right-wing sympathizers to chip away at extreme right candidate and likely challenger Marine Le Pen’s base should not come at the prize of a nation’s principles. Or logic.