Immigration rose to new heights in France last year amid growing calls from the populist National Rally for a referendum on immigration.
Provisional data released by the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday showed that the number of visas issued by France increased by 17 per cent last year to 2,858,083, including 288,108 long-term stay visas.
Meanwhile, a record 336,700 residence permits were issued to foreigners, an increase of 1.8 per cent over 2023 and nearly six per cent higher than in 2022.
Students received the most residence permits, 109,300, followed by familial migrants — also known as chain migrants — at 90,600. Economic and humanitarian migrants comprised the third-largest cohort, with 55,000 residence permits received.
According to Le Figaro, this brings the total number of people with valid residence permits in the country to over 4.3 million, a new high for France.
Migrants from Algeria, a former French colony, were the highest-represented group, with nearly 650,000 residence permits.
The figures showed that just 21,000 illegal migrants were removed from the country in 2024. However, this was slightly up from the previous year when 17,000 were expelled.
Commenting on the figures, the leader of the anti-mass migration National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, said: “It is no longer possible for the French to be satisfied with words and empty declarations; we must now take action and implement the necessary measures to regain control of our migration policy.”
Only 77 per cent? https://t.co/J7zIsGi97R
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 26, 2022
National Rally President Jordan Bardella added: “The doors of our country have never been so open, and immigration has never been so numerous. If the French people want to regain control, they must choose leaders who truly have the courage and the will to put an end to three decades of excess.”
Bardella has been leading the call in France for a national referendum on immigration. At a rally in Montélimar last week, the populist leader said that if the government refuses to give the people a vote on the issue, the National Rally will immediately organise a referendum “as soon as we come to power”.
“The bill which will be submitted for approval to the French will constitute a real legal and political shield against the ‘migratory submersion’ in progress and to come,” Bardella said.
The MEP’s comments were made in reference to Prime Minister François Bayrou, who admitted last week that mass migration was creating a “feeling of submersion” among the French people. The statement, which echoed the language of Marine Le Pen, sparked outrage among leftist parties in the country.
Despite his admission, Prime Minister Bayrou has so far shot down calls for a national referendum on immigration.
While the numbers released Tuesday represent a record high for legal migration in France, they pale in comparison to those seen in neighbouring Britain, which, despite being less than half the size of France, has experienced far more drastic immigration in recent years.
According to the latest UK government figures, a staggering 1.2 million people immigrated to Britain in the year leading up to July of 2024, with a net migration (the number of arrivals minus those who departed the country) of around 728,000.
However, this may be underestimated, given that the previous year’s numbers were recently revised up from an initial net migration estimate of 740,000 to 906,000.
French Prime Minister Admits Country Close to Being ‘Submerged’ by Mass Migrationhttps://t.co/RT7uqdBjjo
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 29, 2025
