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Minister sparks anger over French birthright laws

Posted on: Sunday, 18 September 2005, 09:23 CDT

By Marcel Michelson

PARIS (Reuters) - France's minister for overseas affairs provoked outrage this weekend by saying illegal immigrants were giving birth on French territory to ensure their children had French nationality.

Francois Baroin called for a debate on France's birthright laws, challenging a taboo at the heart of France's near-sacred republican values. It was a fresh sign mainstream politicians are jumping on France's right-wing anti-immigration bandwagon.

A child born on French ground is French, irrespective of parentage. Baroin said on Saturday that parents expecting children were immigrating illegally to France's overseas territories to give birth to French children.

"I have seen things that have shocked me and on the basis of these truths on the ground I want to reopen the debate. The law permits it," he told Radio France Outre-mer (RFO) in a rare outspoken interview by a usually low-profile minister.

He said that on the island of Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean Comoros archipelago, "more than 30 percent of the inhabitants are of illegal origin."

Some 1.7 million people live in France's overseas territories and departments. The former include French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Mayotte and enjoy more autonomy than departments while retaining certain French rights and obligations.

Baroin, whose ministry governs France's relations with those regions, said he did not exclude a review of the right by birthplace that determines who can become French.

BREAKING A TABOO

In the weekly Figaro magazine, Baroin went a step further and said discussing the law of birthright even on mainland France "should no longer be a taboo."

Similar laws apply in other countries, the United States for example. In Germany, children of foreign parentage must decide as young adults whether to take their parents' nationality instead of the German.

Baroin's remarks provoked condemnation by the opposition Socialist Party (PS) and the SOS Racism association.

Former Socialist Culture Minister and presidential hopeful Jack Lang said it called into question basic republican values.

PS National Secretary Malek Boutih said in a statement: "Francois Baroin opens a debate that is dangerous for the future of the republic."

He added the discussion would open the door to a change in the French nationality system "clearly aimed at all foreigners and their children, undermining the French republican model."

SOS Racism's chairman, Dominique Sopo, said he would mobilize broad French opposition if the goverment attempted to review the birthright law.

Christiane Taubira, a left-wing parliamentarian from Guyane, said Baroin's words "endangered France's interests in its relations with the rest of the world."

Anti-immigration issues have long been the preserve of the extreme right, such as the National Front (FN), whose leader made it to the runoff of the 2002 presidential elections.

Some moderate, right-of-centre politicians are talking tough on immigration to boost their standing as they jockey for position ahead of the next elections.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right government's number two, has made tackling illegal immigration a plank of his campaign to become France's next president in 2007.

And the cabinet is drawing up laws to reorient French immigration policy at Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's behest.

(additional reporting by Emmanual Jarry)

Source: REUTERS

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