The "Mexicanization" of France, a Shipwreck, and a Broken Picket Line

This week in crazy French immigration news. Part 1.

The French flag of Mexico. (Reddit/pentagondodecahedron)

A few weeks ago, frustrated by another barrage of xenophobic garbage spouted by France’s Interior Minister, I posted a note on Substack about starting a weekly newsletter recapping all of the crazy shit happening in France vis-a-vis foreigners and immigration policy. There’s simply too much going on over here for me to write an individual post about all of it.

This past week did nothing to allay my concerns about the necessity of this regular meet-up.

So, without further ado, here’s my recap of this week in crazy French immigration news.

• Interior Minister Bruno Rétailleau laments the “Mexicanization” of France

Today, Interior Minister Bruno Rétailleau and Justice Minister Didier Migaud (Macron’s 'left-wing’ caution) are in the French port city of Marseille, where they will be announcing measures to combat narco-trafficking in France. No appearance of Rétailleau is complete, however, without a healthy dose of thinly-veiled racism.

This week, at a stop in the northern French city of Rennes, Rétailleau lashed out against the “Mexicanization” of France and the creation of so-called “narco-enclaves,” after a turf war left a French teen dead in Poitiers.

While it’s true that there was a small bump in homocides in France in 2023, even the center-right newspaper 20 Minutes was quick to point out that this blip was most likely attributable to femicides, not gang violence.

The real purpose of Rétailleau’s words were not to point out a veritable phenomenon, but rather to stigmatize and induce fear. (“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime” might ring some bells this week.)

As I’ve written, Rétailleau has been on the forefront of conflating immigration and crime in France — despite this being statistically untrue around the world. In 2023, there were about 40,000 Mexicans living in France, a ten-fold increase since 2004. Yet, despite this wave of migration, I haven’t seen too many Zetas roaming the streets of Paris.

In a powerful op-ed in Humanité, the Collective of Mexicans and Franco-Mexicans in France responded to Rétailleau in the best way possible:

“Evoking the term ‘Mexicanization’ to designate the rise in violence associated with drug trafficking in France is to erase the culture and millennias-long history of a multicultural country that has marked world history in order to emphasize only its negative aspects.”

Maybe Rétailleau should visit Mexico City and not Marseille.

• A deadly shipwreck, a vacuous silence

On November 4, a small boat capsized between the Comoros islands and the French overseas territory of Mayotte after it was attacked and intentionally sunk by traffickers. Twenty-five people died — to the deafening silence of most French media commentators.

As Le Monde points out, this dangerous sea passage led to the deaths of between 7,000 and 10,000 people between 1995 et 2012. Because Mayotte is a French overseas territory with better employment opportunities and social services than neighboring Comoros, desparate Comorions file into boats called kwassa kwassa and embark on the dangerous sea voyage.

When I spoke with French journalist Louis Witter last month, he told me that along with Calais, Mayotte is one of France’s laboratories for testing repressive policies — be that in terms of policing or citizenship rights.

Earlier this year, former French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced a law proposal to end birthright citizenship in Mayotte, meaning that babies born in Mayotte would not automatically obtain French nationality. “It will no longer be possible to become French if you do not have French parents yourself,” Darmanin said at the time. “And we will thus literally cut off the attractiveness that there may be in the Mahorais archipelago.”

In other words, let them die over there.

• Rétailleau goes postal, sacks undocumented Chronopost workers

For 36-months, workers at a Chronopost mail distribution center camped out in front of their factory in Alfortville, a Parisian suburb, demanding higher wages and regularizations of their employment statuses.

On October 31, the French Interior Minister sent in the police to break up the picket. In one day, the workers were left jobless and, still, undocumented.

“Bruno Rétailleau did what Gerald Darmanin couldn’t,” Aboubacar, one of the undocumented workers told Mediapart’s Nejma Brahim. A supporter of the picketers, Nathalie, noted that the evacuation of the encampment was a gift to the extreme-right.

Brahim highlights that the evacuation took place in a Socialist-run city, showing that even left-leaning districts across France are facing the pressure of the current government’s anti-immigrant politic.

Workers vowed to continue their struggle, but admitted that they faced an uphill battle.

“In their eyes, we don’t exist,” one of the strikers, who preferred to remain anonymous, said. “Other than to work.”