French protesters took to the streets this past weekend to defend therights of immigrants, who would face possible DNA testing in cases offamily reunification, under changes to immigration law proposed by amember of the French majority government, led by President NicholasSarkozy.
For protesters, including the French Socialist party, high profileintellectuals, a bevy of film stars, and centre right politicians, as wellas immigrant defence and human rights groups, the Mariani amendment,supported by Prime Minister François Fillon, is contrary to the republicanspirit of France.
Opposition critics make five arguments. First, immigrant selection shouldnot be genetically based. Second, family affiliation cannot be assumed tobe genetic in nature. Third, parliament cannot be allowed to circumvent anational consensus about what constitutes acceptable bioethics. Fourth,allowing use of DNA testing in routine administration carries a risk ofexpanding its scope to include invasion of personal privacy. Fifth, theamendment insinuates that behind every immigrant lies a fraud suspect.
On his recent visit to Bulgaria, when accepting a decoration for the roleof France in freeing Bulgarian nurses held unjustly in Libya, PresidentSarkozy declared that whenever someone suffered injustice in the world,they automatically become French, and could therefore count on the supportof the French state. This statement by the energetic, media savvy, and poll-driven president wasgreeted with skepticism in France. The newspaper Libération featured acartoon showing Sarkozy putting the boots to homeless, illegal immigrantsat home, shortly after his return from speaking in Sofia. Sarkozy, despite being known for his authoritarian tendencies, routinelyrelies on the republican ideal when framing subjects for public debate,just as do his Socialist opponents.
France, unlike the U.S., the U.K., and Canada (which imports its ideasfrom both) does not accept that markets provide society with its supremesocial law. Both literally and figuratively, American, British, andCanadians are much the poorer as a result.
The Sarkozy government has named a commission on competiveness that is toissue a preliminary report on housing and the consumer purchasing powerthis week. New proposals are expected to modify employment law, includingunemployment insurance, and the 35 hour work week. The pre-cautionaryapproach to the introduction of environmentally sensitive products andtechniques, which is part of the French Constitution, is under attack frombusiness groups that claim this green provision stifles innovation.
The legitimate fear among French Socialists is that Sarkozy will useliberal economic reforms to make France a market driven society. InCanada, of course, it was just such measures as the free trade agreementwith the U.S., and unemployment insurance reform, which pushed Canadiansin a neoliberal direction.
The French president has inherited, from Gaullism, the idea that thegovernment should be independent of the political party behind it. Sarkozyhas âeoeopenedâe his government by adding left members to his cabinet, anddrawing on prominent Socialists for government positions. Jacques Attali,former advisor to Socialist president François Mitterand heads thecompetiveness commission, for instance. The idea is to put a republicanface, not a partisan one, on his government. The ploy has succeeded indestabilizing, at least until now, the Socialist oppositon.
Social action groups fear the worst from Sarkozy, and since his electionhave been organizing “disobedience” schools where militants learn to takeover a GMO field to prevent a crop being harvested, shut down a militarybase, or block a power project.
In France there is more flag-waving than usual these days. Suchchauvinistic displays of national identity are no substitute for policiesof social solidarity in the workplace, the home, and the nation, ascitizens of the U.S., and, now Canada should realize. The republican idealposits that all citizens are equal, and entitled to equal rights. It doesnot guarantee solidarity.
For French Socialists, making the republic meaningful for all doesrequire solidarity. That is why they are taking the lead to defendimmigrants from an attack led by a government of the right, one defendersof the republican spirit have every reason to fear.
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