Following a proposal from the opposition party UMP, France is debating limitations to to its current ius soli-based nationality law. In this context, the French press is looking at how other European countries enable migrants to access nationality and cite findings from the Access to Citizenship and its Impact on Immigrant Integration (ACIT) project.
By the end of the year, the UMP will present a private bill for the end of automatic citizenship acquisition. If the bill is successful, children born in France from foreign parents will have to make a formal demand for obtaining French citizenship.
The ACIT Country Report for France concluded that:
1 On average, citizenship laws are more inclusive in France than in most EU-15 countries with the exception of demanding language and integration requirements for ordinary naturalisation.2 Providing documentation required for ordinary naturalisation is a greater practical obstacle in France than in most other EU countries. Applicants have to obtain more documents from their country of origin, including on criminal record. They have to provide extensive proof of employment over several years and particular vulnerable groups are not exempt from criminal record or economic requirements.
3 The transparency of the requirements and ‘decentralisation’ were raised by stakeholders as the major citizenship issues in France today. Local authorities apply laws differently which leads to unequal treatment of applicants. Exemptions for the language requirements are often not transparent. Conditions for refusal are not always clear and internal guidelines are not public.
