France rejects its foreign students after having educated them
This summer and in early September, several steps have been taken by the French ministries of Interior and Labor to “apply rigorously” immigration regulations to limit immigration, and to strengthen the conditions of issuance for student visas (such as increasing the minimum required monthly revenue).
Most articles are in French, I could only find this one by the NYTimes, but it’s only talking about the statement by French officials that these students’ cases will be given more consideration - which, it seems, is not quite true yet. This editorial is a bit short but also interesting, gives a nice view of the current anti-immigration trend in France.
Basically, the idea is to limit the number of visas granted to people in certain fields. In theory, it was made to allow immigration only in a selected set of fields in need of employees. In practice, it bars most graduate students of highly selective French Grandes Ecoles from obtaining a visa for a job they landed sometimes before graduation.
At the moment, the scope is limited to these highly publicized cases of elite students (a few hundreds). The first to react were the North African, who are the most numerous and, I believe, the most targeted in such measures. However similar cases have been reported for an American student, as well as a Japanese student.
I know this is not extraordinary: a lot of countries do limit their student immigration; with higher tuition fees for foreigners, for instance (UK); or by checking that no national citizen has applied for the job before, and could be employed instead of a foreign national (US, France).
What is contradictory, though, is that France brags about its humanitarian image, sells its elite-but-cheap education system to attract foreign students, and yet refuses to let them work in France while at the same time complaining about French students who take advantage of the cheap education to earn big money abroad. French universities are seeking solutions to gain better visibility in the world and to improve their world-rankings; and at the same time, immigration rules are deterring foreign students from enrolling.
The argument is “these students would do greater good in their own, developing country”. True, but the counterargument is “we need this valuable experience in this great French company” and “we are repaying what France gave us”. And my argument would be: we should be free to choose where we want to work and live. Especially when we start having special links with a particular country that is not the one we hold citizenship of.
In my case, Tokyo is giving me a scholarship and a seat in their most prestigious university: I might not work there, but I do keep a special space for Japan in my mind. I would be similarly annoyed if Japan refused me the right to work in one of their companies, if I was hired in one of them.
“France is the country of human rights”, “All citizens are entitled to equal treatment under the law”: Well, that’s no longer true. Naturalized citizens, their kids, and people born outside of France already face increased hassle to renew passports and ID cards, compared to those who have a history of French citizenship in their family. I’m crossing my fingers for next time I have to renew my ID papers.
I’m really annoyed by this worldwide tendency to shut down frontiers.
