Nigerian students and other immigrants are set to face stricter immigration rules as the French parliament has passed a law restraining them from bringing their families to the country.
This is coming months after the British government in a similar policy, announced new restrictions that will stop Nigerian students, other nationalities studying in the United Kingdom from bringing their families over.
According to a report by the BBC on Thursday, the law was backed by both President, Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and Deputy of the French National Assembly, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.
It was reported that a previous draft of the new law was rejected by parliament last week when the National Rally, as well as the left, voted against it. However, in response, the government redrafted the bill, making some of its provisions tougher.
The new toughening immigration policy makes it more difficult for migrants to bring family members to France and delays their access to welfare benefits.
But left-wingers said Mr Macron was enabling the far-right. “History will remember those who betrayed their convictions,” Socialist party leader Olivier Faure said.
32 of France’s 101 departments, including Paris, said they would refuse to implement the provisions of the law on benefits for non-citizens.
The French vote came hours before an EU agreement to reform the asylum system across the bloc’s 27 member states.
The new pact, agreed by EU governments and European Parliament members, includes creating border detention centres and enabling the quicker deportation of rejected asylum seekers.
The new French legislation exposed divisions within the governing alliance as 27 MPs voted against it while 32 abstained – almost a quarter of pro-Macron MPs.
Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau, who was a member of the Communist Party in his youth, stepped down in protest at the immigration law.
“Some measures in the bill make me very uncomfortable,” said Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the lower house of parliament and a member of Mr Macron’s party.
Recall that earlier in May 2023, the UK Government announced new restrictions that will stop Nigerian students, and other nationalities studying in the UK from bringing their families over.