Marie Moretto, Cimade delegate in Montpellier: “The Asylum and Immigration law remains very problematic”

Marie Moretto : “On vient à nouveau enlever des droits”. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Marie Moretto is the new regional manager of Cimade. She reviews the vote on the Asylum and Immigration law, its partial censorship by the Council of State but also the consequences of the provisions which are maintained and against which the association continues to mobilize.

La Cimade has strongly criticized the Asylum and Immigration law since its vote. How did you receive the partial censorship of the text by the Council of State ?

We are talking about a trompe-l’oeil relief. Indeed, the 35 censored articles were the most emblematic, the harshest, but this censorship is only in form. It sanctions legislative cavaliers. On the merits, the Council of State did not comment. These articles will most likely come back, the National Rally has already tabled a bill. At the bottom, a breach is open. The government has opened a boulevard to far-right ideas which also speaks of an ideological victory. 

"We're mean to everyone"

And what is your reading of the law as it remains ? 

The initial bill was already very problematic. This is the 20th bill in 40 years and it is increasingly repressive, rights are being taken away. We were presented with a text balanced between integration and firmness, which is completely false. We remain in this idea that foreign people are undesirable. There is a very strong link between the disturbance of public order and foreigners, in the criminalization of foreigners. We have just reinforced this stereotype. And we are weakening the procedural guarantees on asylum. This logic runs counter to reality. Gérald Darmanin said « I will be mean to the bad and nice to the good, with this law we are mean to everyone. The ideology behind this law is problematic. 

What do you think of the articles that focus on regularization through work ?

If we look in detail, contrary to what we are led to believe, we limit access to work by restricting it to professions in tension. We give discretionary power to the prefect, it is not a legal title. We are getting tougher because we have to provide proof of twelve months of pay slips over twenty-four months whereas previously we were around eight months. Before, with the Valls circular, professional integration was integrated into a global vision of integration in France, linked to education and the French language. We are coming to tighten this up. This anchors this absurd thing of not allowing people to work but asking them to prove it. It’s totally paradoxical.

And the list of professions in tension will be based on announcements published by Pôle-emploi. While we know very well that a lot of advertisements do not go through Pôle-emploi, particularly in professions such as catering. This does not come to recognize a reality, but to have a wet-fingered calculation. What we fear is that there will be a decline where, before, we could regularize ourselves through work outside of these professions in tension. Even if people work. 

You denounce a display on the aspect of integration ? 

We don't feel this effort at integration and that's good because that's not the objective. On the other hand, we felt the tightening around public order and obligations to leave the territory. In fact, there is no balance, we only feel the hardening through the confinements, the difficulties in obtaining appointments to submit a first application to the prefecture. Furthermore, the law highlights access to the French language. What we see is that language becomes a braking tool, it is a condition for regularization whereas it is a consequence of regularization. You must be able to be part of society peacefully to learn French. There, we will ask foreigners for diplomas, this was not the case before. For naturalization we require a level « B2 », the university level. If we asked the French for this level, many would not have it. Foreigners are asked to be more French than the French to be French. We are exploiting this question of integration to slow down access to rights for foreigners. 

La Cimade also denounces the disappearance of protected categories, what were they ? 

This concerns people who entered France before the age of 13, and those who have lived in the territory for more than ten years. We speak of disturbances of public order for absolutely everything, this sprinkles throughout this text. There is insecurity for people who, before, had a certain protection, residence permits are being made precarious. The notion of public order nourishes this fantasy of the delinquent foreigner and is very manipulable and usable. We are giving enormous power to withdraw a residence permit based on this very vague notion. This is problematic. We come to ruin the lives of foreigners without necessarily limiting entry and while no measures encourage expulsions. And that goes against reality. We know that migrations will accelerate.

Appointed national delegate in the region

Born to Italian parents, shared between the two countries in her youth Marie Moretto, a trained lawyer, is 38 years old. She joined Cimade in 2011, at the Sète detention center and then at the Béziers reception center for asylum seekers. For two years, she has led and then coordinated the association's team working on the reduction of slums occupied by the Roma.

She was appointed national delegate in the region a few weeks ago. In this capacity, it supervises and supports the actions of the eight local groups in the region, from Nîmes to Perpignan, which include volunteers and employees of the slum mission in conjunction with national management.

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