An extraordinary session of Parliament is examining the bill on immigration controls. Apart from amendments to the provisions, we should examine the essential preconditions for the modernization of our immigration policy. We may wonder whether any such policy exited in the past, in the absence of consistent tools whereby to implement a real management of migration flows. The government must meet three challenges - to create a real administration of immigration, to provide its ministry with a real budget, and to simplify the administrative formalities that constitute a headache for foreign visitors.
Brice Hortefeux has inherited in her ministerial portfolio scattered services with different, sometimes conflicting, working practices, whose relations are marked by suspicion, and which must now display greater consistency. In connection with family grouping, it is striking to note the disagreements among administrations working in his country and consulates abroad, which are, rightly, more concerned with fraud in connection with civil status. In Congo Brazzaville, for instance, I identified a significant number of positive decisions on family grouping, notified to applicants by prefects' offices, despite the fact that the consulate had established, on the basis of checks, that the claimed relationship was false. The administrations' work in connection with economic immigration is unsatisfactory, too. It is striking that our enterprises, based in Africa and Asia, find it so difficult to bring their personnel on detachment to France, even though they are qualified employe! es. At the same time, it seems simpler for a Turkish national resident in France to bring in a family member to work in his construction firm or fast-food restaurant, because mastery of the Turkish language is an absolute necessity, and such skills are lacking in our country!
The emergence of common working practices among the administrations responsible for managing migration flows is a priority. There is only one state, which has only one immigration policy. Such a policy is built by means of a budget. In the fall Parliament will examine an incomplete immigration budget, comprising only a small part of the funds allocated to immigration policy. For instance, it will not include the visa services and prefects offices' foreign nationals services. How can resources be redeployed under such circumstances? It must be kept in mind that the cost of processing a visa application is 35 euros, as against the cost of deporting a person present illegally, which is 1,800 euros. A huge amount of work remains to be done to simplify administrative formalities. This is a public service requirement. Foreign visitors cannot understand the administrative complexities of consulates and prefects' offices. How can we hope to develop high-quality economic immigrati! on if foreign workers, after the struggle of applying for a visa, have to face the marathon of the investigation of their residence status? How can they understand that a decision in favour of family grouping does not lead to the issue of a visa?
It is as though our administrations were incapable of trusting each other and retained the possibility of nullifying a decision made by other services. As regards economic immigration, it is becoming an urgent necessity to create a single document, a visa that also grants residence status, and to modify the ''skills and talents permit.'' For students, why should consulates' offices dealing with study in France not be authorized to decide on both visas and residence permits? We must devise a single portal for foreign visitors. Our country's attractiveness and stringent management of migration flows both depend on it.