A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #339 - Towards a questioning of "soil law" in France (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

During the debate on the immigration law this winter, parliamentarians 
tried to put an end to automatic access to nationality for all minors 
born in France to foreign parents. This provision having been rejected 
by the Constitutional Council, it should reappear in the coming months 
because it is one of the battlehorses of the far-right followed by the 
right up to certain Macronists. ---- By the next national elections we 
should be entitled to a constitutional revision allowing France to 
abolish land law in one of its departments, Mayotte, pending its 
generalization.

The Nationality Code currently in force
The Nationality Code provides that any child whose at least one parent 
is French is French at birth (this is "blood law"), as well as any child 
born in France whose at least one parent was born in France (this is 
what we call "double soil law").
Unlike the United States, land law is not "complete" in France. The mere 
birth of a child on French soil is not enough to make him a national. In 
our legislation relating to nationality (contained in the civil code), a 
child born in France to foreign parents must wait until the age of 13, 
and provide proof of five years of residence since the age of 8, so that 
his parents can claim for his counts French nationality. In the absence 
of this parental declaration, the child automatically becomes French 
upon reaching majority, always provided that there has been habitual 
residence for a continuous or discontinuous period of at least five 
years since the age of 11.
Note that this automaticity was called into question in 1993 by the 
Chiraquian right which was already chasing the electorate of Le Pen 
senior! From 1993 to 1998, young people born in France to foreign 
parents had to apply for French nationality between the ages of 16 and 
21. The return of the principle of automatically acquiring French 
nationality took place in 1998 (law of March 16, 1998) for young 
foreigners born in France and residing there for at least 5 years.

The Mayotte case
This nationality code is no longer the same in Mayotte, which has 
nevertheless been a French department since 2011. In fact, since March 
1, 2019, in application of the law of September 10, 2018, children born 
in Mayotte to parents Foreigners can only become French by virtue of 
their birth in this territory if, on the date of their birth, at least 
one of their parents had been residing in France in a regular and 
uninterrupted situation for three months. If the Constitutional Council 
admitted the constitutionality of the 2018 reform, it is because it was 
a simple "adaptation" of national legislation permitted by article 73 of 
the Constitution, having regard to the "characteristics and constraints" 
of this overseas department linked to the importance of migratory flows.
In application of this reform, a large proportion of children born in 
Mayotte to foreign parents no longer have access to French nationality - 
the number of acquisitions would have increased from 2,900 in 2018 to 
900 in 2022, according to the figures communicated by the ministry. This 
has therefore not had the slightest effect on migratory flows towards 
Mayotte or on the number of residence permits issued. This number of 
acquisitions of French nationality is, moreover, slightly below the 
national average.
As we could have suspected, the right to French nationality does not 
produce any attraction effect, no "call for air": It does not explain 
the figures for irregular immigration! Comorians, particularly Mohelians 
and Anjouanese, go to Mayotte out of necessity. The motivation for their 
departure is the refusal of poverty, misery, the absence of a future 
like any so-called economic migration. If Mayotte is the poorest French 
department, it is also the richest island in the Comoros Archipelago 
where, despite everything, one can hope to receive treatment and have 
access to education. Consequently, the Comorians will leave, whatever 
the obstacles that stand in their way at the risk of their lives. As for 
Darmanin and Macron, they continue to pave the way for the far right.
In Mayotte, as everywhere in France, the idea is to sort out young 
people, sending them back to their origins and their ancestry. And we 
see the ideology of the "great replacement" coming back into full light, 
according to which the increase in the number of immigrants in the 
French population calls into question "national identity". Marine Le 
Pen, who, in her presidential program, included the end of land law in 
Mayotte, and the end of automatic access to nationality, formulates it 
without hesitation: "French nationality is inherited or is deserved.»
Denis, Reims 3/03/24

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4138
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