Algiers-Paris crisis: France threatens to restrict work visas and “diplomatic visas”
The crisis between Paris and Algiers could lead to the questioning of the agreement that governs Algerian immigration in France since 1968. Between common interests and restrictions, it is the fruit of tormented history between the two countries.
What is the place of Algerian immigration in France?
Algerians occupy the head of foreign nationalities present in France. According to the French Ministry of the Interior, there were 649,991 Algerians in the territory in 2024 (+ 0.5 % compared to 2023), representing 16 % of foreigners. A little over 40 % have a residence permit for family reasons.
The Algerians occupy the second place of nationalities which obtained the greatest number of first stays of residence (behind Morocco), representing 9 % of first-time arrivals. Thus, 29,100 Algerians obtained a residence permit for the first time in 2024, a figure however down 9 % compared to 2023, according to the same source.
They are also the first nationality challenged in France in an irregular situation with 33,754 (+6 % compared to 2023) arrests.
Among the 2.999 remoteness Algerian nationals (+17 % compared to 2023), 72.9 % are forced feedback.
How was this immigration?
The 1962 Evian agreements, which ended the Algerian war, will maintain the freedom of movement and installation of Algerians, who will be considered foreigners “Different of others with more rights”explains Emmanuel Blanchard, historian and sociologist.
Several reasons for this: “They were French for almost a century, the needs in the industry are important since we are at the heart of the Thirty Glorious Years, but above all, French negotiators sought to defend the rights of French in Algeria”explains the author of “History of Algerian immigration in France”.
“The agreements are thought in a reciprocity that hoped to maintain a strong French community in Algeria”recalls Mr. Blanchard.
“Emigration from independent Algeria will be fueled by economic difficulties, political authoritarianism and the black decade (civil war)”he continues.
What does the 1968 agreement provide and how did he evolve?
The 1968 agreement that the government threatens to “Denounce” Detches the Algerians of ordinary law in matters of immigration. Revised three times (1985, 1994 and 2001), it facilitates the entry of Algerians by delivering them “Residence certificates”but it also restricted their rights compared to 1962.
From 1968, quotas of workers admitted to French territory will be established. In September 1973, President Houari Boumédiene, who invoked anti-Algerian racism in France, took the initiative to suspend work emigration.
The year 1986 also marks a turning point by restricting the circulation of Algerians for the first time in France: the latter must now obtain a visa to come to France for a short stay (less than three months). Algeria will reply by establishing the same measure towards the French wishing to enter its territory.
Today, in the midst of a crisis between Paris and Algiers, the French government brandished the threat of a restriction of work visas or the end of “Diplomatic visas”.
“The French state has always wanted to limit the arrivals of the Algerians, even at the time when they were French, but it could not really because it was necessary to defend colonization: if we (said) that Algeria (was) France, one could not (could) say that the Algerians could not come to mainland France”underlines Mr. Blanchard.
Since 1962, “There is a very restrictive thought in a large part of the French right and extreme right, which considers that once Algeria has become independent, the Algerians have nothing to do in France. But it is to forget that even if it was done in the violence of colonization, these two societies are deeply entangled ”insists the historian.
© Agence France-Presse
