France has introduced stricter rules aimed at curbing the influx of illegal migrants and reducing the number of undocumented individuals granted legal status.
On January 24, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, an advocate for tougher immigration controls, abolished the 2012 “Valls Circular”, issued in 2012 and named after then-interior minister Manuel Valls.
There is no right to regularisation. The right of the sovereign State is to admit or not to admit to its soil whomever it wishes.
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The circular previously allowed illegal immigrants to request legal status based on family life, employment or temporary worker status.
Retailleau has now increased the residency requirement from five to “at least seven years” and added a mandatory language proficiency criterion.
“The objective is to fight against illegal immigration, not to regularise at full speed,” Retailleau said, signalling a shift from previous policies.
Elsewhere, Germany has witnessed a shift in its political stance on migration.
German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz, aiming to succeed Olaf Scholz after February 23’s snap elections, vowed on January 23 to implement a “de facto” ban on new asylum seekers to Germany.
That marked a break away from former chancellor Angela Merkel’s infamous “Wir Schaffen das” (“we can handle this) doctrine during the 2015 European migrant crisis.
Merkel believed Europe should open its borders, especially to sustain an ageing labour workforce across the continent.
Ex-chancellor Angela Merkel’s former party has vowed to implement a “de facto” ban on new asylum seekers to Germany should it win the upcoming snap federal election. https://t.co/oarlBNyJxg
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 21, 2025
Merz’s pledge followed public outrage over a recent knife attack by an alleged Afghan asylum seeker.
“All illegal immigrants will be turned away at the border, including those seeking protection,” Merz said, calling for an end to the Schengen free movement principle and advocating for permanent controls at all German borders.
He labelled the European Union’s migration rules as “dysfunctional” and accused the current asylum policy of leading to a “decade of ruin”.
Merz’s CDU has made migration reform part of its election campaign, with the party’s 82-page manifesto advocating for a strict limitation on migration.
The document warned of an “unmanageable” influx and called for urgent measures to prevent Germany’s social and economic systems collapsing under the weight of mass migration.
France and Germany are not alone in rethinking their migration policies.
At the start of January, Swedish officials announced plans to propose an EU immigrant return hub in March 2025, signalling a broader European trend toward tighter immigration controls.
Even Germany’s outgoing left-leaning government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz has taken a similar stance.
Interior minister Nancy Faeser has called for rewriting the EU’s Dublin Regulation, which currently mandates that asylum-seekers filed claims in the first EU country they entered — a rule that has pressured southern European nations and Germany.
The German Government has announced a new border control crackdown in the country ahead of its next state-level election later this month. https://t.co/kmBWab9ftQ
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 10, 2024
