France's closed door policy

11.07.11
Ahmadou Bamba NDIAYE
Letter From Europe
[Fall 2011, Place de la Sorbonne, Paris: hundreds of French and foreign graduates occupy the square and chant out their growing discontent, ribbon-knotted college degrees unfolded and thrown out into a collective trash can. As the protesters shout out names of prestigious schools with an outward tint of sarcasm, the passing crowd watches in amazement. This event seems to add even more legitimacy to the current dissatisfaction due to chronic unemployment rates and overall social tension.]
Dear friend,

Long time no see… I miss you! How is New York? What about your roommates? I hope everything is alright.
Do you remember when we just took the SATs and I, in an ultimate moment of idealism, told you that I would not go to the U.S. only because I do not share their political stances as regards social policy in general? Well, sit back and take a deep breath, for what you are about to hear is equally sad. International students are no more welcome in France. And that, my friend, is a fact. Now, I guess you have this quizzical smirk on your lips, thinking upon the irony of the things of life. But before you literally crack up, let me tell you more about the things down here.
Back in May, the French Minister of Interior, Mr. Claude Guéant, issued a bill aiming at restricting foreign graduates’ work possibilities in French firms. This would be performed through the refusal of the switch from student status visa to worker status visa by the French administrative offices, namely the district prefectures. Can you believe that? I shan’t remind you that we are talking about a country renowned for defending humanistic ideals and self-labeled as “champion of liberty”! Yet, here it is, there is a blatant discrepancy between the received make-believes and the political reality. And, I sincerely hope that it is merely political and need not be qualified as social, because that would obviously point to a more alarming phenomenon.
Plus, this is all the more shocking when you observe the current trends prevailing in French higher education; that is, more and more meriting international students are being recruited in. It is common knowledge now: elite colleges like Sciences Po or HEC Paris prosper because they attract the best human resources internationally. And basically, when these products of the so-called “chosen immigration” graduate and are hired by competitiveness-seeking French firms, the local administration simply blocks their professional integration. Let me just illustrate this by the example of Mr. Nabil Sebti, a Morrocan national who has been in the French education system since kindergarten. Mr. Sebti founded two start-up companies while he was still a student at the best business school in Europe, HEC Paris. He received many prizes for innovation as a junior entrepreneur and decided after his master specialization to begin his professional career in France. When he started the administrative procedure to change his status, he had to wait the whole summer because the prefecture website was undergoing maintenance. Moreover, as he finally filed for said change of visa status, his application was simply denied evaluation and he was afterwards delivered a temporary visa allowing him just enough time to leave the French territory. Unbelievable, right? I chose the case of this student because it epitomizes a greater problem that involves tens of thousands of international students every year. The famous “circulaire du 31 mai” is being the ground for unlawful deliberation and disrespect of the rightful delivery of work licenses. Then it is not economic priorities nor the more important principles of meritocracy that govern the recruiting mechanisms but rather xenophobic rationales. Deep and unjustified popular fear and extreme political views are finding leverage in such unexplained government initiatives. This was to some level predictable and pertains to the wider scope of the fanciful debate over national identity.
More generally, I would say the European continent itself is going through a hard time as faced with foreign identities. Indeed, the European ties of integration are progressively wearing out. Europe has experienced centuries of auto-centrism and ‘cultural solidification’ and these patterns do jeopardize integration. Globalization always teaches us about the free movement of people and goods, but in fact, it is mostly the impersonal economic assets that are mobile. Countries keep on building strongholds to secure themselves from external threats while inherently nationalist claims are budding all the way. My point here is: the big narrative of globalization itself is overrated and generally tested through vulgar clichés. It is not because the Zanzibar foreign-aid receiving farmer talks through the Internet while enjoying a sip of Coca-Cola that he will ever step onto the land that saw the birth of such myths. Indeed, he will more likely live and die on his farm and, perhaps, every now then, see a waving hand from some tourists who got in his country with just a driver license!

Yours,

Bamba.