Notes · FrenchUK · A-Levels

Politics and immigration

La politique et l'immigration closes AQA's political-life theme, at A-Level only. It covers political solutions to immigration, the positions of the political parties, and political engagement among immigrants themselves. The notes give the French and European framework accurately - l'OFPRA, le regroupement familial, les accords de Schengen, le règlement de Dublin, le titre de séjour, la naturalisation - together with the neutral, precise French needed to discuss a charged subject, and the hedging and attribution structures that let you argue without caricature.

5 sections~24 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4

T·121212 / 15

Exam profile

AO1 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to spoken French on migrationAO2 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to written French on immigration policyAO3 · Manipulate the language accurately, using a range of lexis and structureAO4 · Show knowledge of, and respond critically to, immigration politics in French-speaking society

Operators:traduirerésumerdistinguerattribuernuancerévaluer

basic level

This sub-theme belongs to the political-life theme and is not part of AS French (7651).

higher level

The full A-Level expects the legal categories to be used correctly, party positions to be described neutrally and attributed, and the debate to be evaluated with evidence rather than with slogans.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Politics and immigration

Political solutions: solutions politiques à la question de l'immigration#

AdvancedAQA 7652 3.2.2 - La politique et l'immigration : solutions politiques à la question de l'immigrationDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

L'immigration en France : les grandes étapes

Fig. 1The policy chronology that anchors any answer on this sub-theme. The span marks les Trente Glorieuses, when labour immigration was actively organised - the period whose end in 1974 shapes everything after it.

The first requirement is to use the legal categories correctly, because the whole debate rests on them and confusing them is a factual error. Un migrant is the neutral umbrella term for someone who moves country. Un immigré, in French statistics, is someone born abroad with foreign nationality at birth who now lives in France - a status that does not change even after naturalisation. Un étranger is anyone without French nationality, whether born in France or not. Un demandeur d'asile has applied for protection and is awaiting a decision; un réfugié has been granted it. Un sans-papiers is present without a valid residence permit. These are not synonyms, and French texts rely on the distinctions.

The legal machinery is nameable and precise. Entry normally requires un visa; residence requires un titre de séjour, of which la carte de résident, valid for ten years, is the most secure form. Asylum is examined by l'OFPRA, the office for the protection of refugees and stateless persons created in 1952, with appeals to la Cour nationale du droit d'asile. Family reunification, le regroupement familial, was regulated by decree in 1976, two years after France suspended labour immigration in 1974. Removal takes the form of une obligation de quitter le territoire français, generally abbreviated to OQTF. Integration is contracted through le contrat d'intégration républicaine, administered by l'OFII, which commits new arrivals to civic and language training.

The European layer is decisive and frequently misunderstood. Les accords de Schengen, signed in 1985 and in force from 1995, abolished systematic checks at internal borders among participating states, which in turn made the external border a shared responsibility - hence the creation of the European border agency, Frontex, in 2004. Le règlement de Dublin determines which member state is responsible for examining an asylum application, generally the state of first entry, which places disproportionate weight on southern arrival countries and has been contested ever since. The migration crisis of 2015 exposed both mechanisms simultaneously.

The political solutions on offer can be grouped into four families, which is the most useful structure for an answer. Le contrôle des frontières: reinforcing external borders, readmission agreements, faster removal of those refused. La sélection: so-called immigration choisie, admitting according to skills and labour-market needs. L'intégration: language, employment and housing measures to make settlement work. And l'action sur les causes: development aid, conflict resolution, climate adaptation - the argument that on ne réglera pas la question migratoire aux frontières si l'on ne la traite pas à la source. Most French political programmes combine these four in different proportions, and saying so is more accurate than treating the debate as binary.

Worked example

Translation into English: a policy passage

Translate into English: « Depuis la suspension de l'immigration de travail en 1974, l'essentiel des entrées régulières relève du regroupement familial, des études ou de l'asile. Vouloir « fermer les frontières » revient donc à ignorer que la plupart des arrivées reposent sur des droits reconnus. »

Handle Depuis plus a past event
Depuis la suspension... en 1974 - here depuis takes a noun, so English uses Since the suspension... in 1974. The main verb relève is present and stays present: most regular entries come under.
Translate relever de precisely
relever de means to come under, to fall within the scope of. Not to relieve, not to raise. l'essentiel des entrées = the bulk of entries or most entries.
Handle Vouloir as a subject
An infinitive can be the subject in French: Vouloir fermer les frontières revient à ignorer... English needs a gerund: Wanting to close the borders amounts to ignoring. revenir à + infinitive = to amount to.
Keep the quotation marks meaningful
The guillemets around « fermer les frontières » signal that the writer is quoting a slogan they do not endorse. Keep the quotation marks in English; they carry the writer's distance.
Handle reposer sur des droits reconnus
reposer sur = to rest on, to be based on. des droits reconnus = recognised rights, that is, rights established in law. So: most arrivals are based on established legal rights.

Result: Since the suspension of labour immigration in 1974, the bulk of lawful entries have come under family reunification, study or asylum. Wanting to close the borders therefore amounts to ignoring the fact that most arrivals are based on recognised legal rights.

Typical mistakes

Using un immigré and un étranger interchangeably; a naturalised person remains un immigré in the statistical sense but is no longer un étranger.
Treating Schengen as an open-borders policy with no external control; it transfers control to the external frontier rather than abolishing it.

Active revision

Définissez en français, en 100 mots, cinq catégories juridiques (migrant, immigré, étranger, demandeur d'asile, réfugié) en montrant ce qui les distingue.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA) · GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

Immigration and the parties: l'immigration et les partis politiques#

AdvancedAQA 7652 3.2.2 - La politique et l'immigration : l'immigration et les partis politiquesDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Describe positions, not villains. Broadly, the French far right - principally le Rassemblement national, which took that name in 2018 having previously been le Front national - has long campaigned for sharp restriction, the ending of family reunification and a principle it calls la préférence nationale, giving priority to French nationals in employment and welfare. The mainstream right, represented by Les Républicains, generally argues for quotas, tighter conditions and firmer removals within the existing legal framework. The centre has typically combined firmness on irregular migration with support for legal channels and integration. The left, from le Parti socialiste to La France insoumise and les écologistes, generally emphasises reception conditions, the rights of asylum seekers and regularisation, with real differences between them.

Two framings recur across the whole spectrum and are worth being able to identify and critique. L'immigration choisie contre l'immigration subie - chosen against imposed immigration - presents migration as something the state should select rather than receive; critics argue that it treats people as an economic input and that the categories are unworkable in practice. L'amalgame entre immigration et insécurité links migration to crime; the standard critique is that it conflates distinct phenomena and that the evidence does not support a simple causal claim. Being able to name a framing and analyse it, rather than simply reject it, is the difference between an argued answer and an opinionated one.

The mechanism most worth explaining is why immigration occupies so much political space. Several factors converge: the subject condenses anxieties about identity, security, employment and public services; it is highly visible in the media; it divides the electorates of the mainstream parties internally, which makes it useful to their competitors; and it lends itself to symbolic legislation, since immigration laws have followed one another with unusual frequency in France. That last observation is verifiable and analytical: la fréquence même des lois sur l'immigration suggère que leur fonction est autant symbolique que pratique.

For the evaluative conclusion, the strongest position distinguishes principle from implementation. Almost all French parties accept that the right of asylum exists, that borders are controlled, and that integration matters; they differ over thresholds, priorities and tone. Saying so is not a refusal to judge - it is a precise judgement, and it allows you to state your own view without caricature: le désaccord porte moins sur les principes que sur les seuils et sur les moyens, et c'est précisément pour cela que le débat est si difficile à trancher.

Worked example

Attributing positions without endorsing them

Present three positions on regularising undocumented workers in French, using attribution structures throughout, then state your own view.

Build the attribution toolkit
Pour les uns... pour les autres...; selon X; aux yeux de ses partisans; ses adversaires objectent que; d'aucuns estiment que (formal). Each of these signals that what follows is not your own claim.
Position one, with its own logic
Pour les uns, régulariser les travailleurs sans papiers relève du simple réalisme : ils occupent déjà des emplois que personne d'autre ne prend, et leur situation les expose à l'exploitation. Give the position its best argument, not a straw man.
Position two, likewise
Leurs adversaires objectent qu'une régularisation générale créerait un appel d'air et récompenserait le contournement de la loi. l'appel d'air - literally a draught - is the standard French metaphor in this debate, and naming it as a metaphor is itself analytical.
Position three, the pragmatic middle
D'autres, enfin, plaident pour un examen au cas par cas, fondé sur des critères d'ancienneté et d'emploi, ce qui correspond d'ailleurs à la pratique administrative française. Naming the actual practice is a strong AO4 move.
State your own view, marked as yours
Pour ma part, je serais tenté de dire que le cas par cas est le moins mauvais des systèmes : il évite les effets d'annonce, même s'il laisse des milliers de personnes dans l'incertitude. Note the hedged conditional and the concession.

Result: Pour les uns, régulariser les travailleurs sans papiers relève du simple réalisme : ils occupent déjà des emplois que personne d'autre ne prend, et leur situation les expose à l'exploitation. Leurs adversaires objectent qu'une régularisation générale créerait un « appel d'air » et récompenserait le contournement de la loi. D'autres, enfin, plaident pour un examen au cas par cas, fondé sur des critères d'ancienneté et d'emploi. Pour ma part, je serais tenté de dire que le cas par cas est le moins mauvais des systèmes : il évite les effets d'annonce, même s'il laisse des milliers de personnes dans l'incertitude.

Typical mistakes

Treating the whole French right or left as holding a single position; the internal differences are substantial and examinable.
Using the old name le Front national for the party renamed le Rassemblement national in 2018.

Active revision

Présentez en français, en 140 mots, trois positions politiques différentes sur l'immigration, chacune attribuée et formulée dans ses propres termes, sans jugement de valeur.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA)

Political engagement among immigrants: l'engagement politique chez les immigrés#

AdvancedAQA 7652 3.2.2 - La politique et l'immigration : l'engagement politique chez les immigrésDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Start from the legal position, because it structures everything else. In France, the right to vote in national elections belongs to French nationals. Citizens of other European Union member states resident in France may vote and stand in municipal and European elections, a right that came with the Maastricht treaty of 1992. Nationals of non-EU countries have no voting rights in France, even after decades of residence and taxation, and le droit de vote des étrangers aux élections locales has been a recurring proposal of the left and a recurring point of opposition on the right for many years without being enacted. That asymmetry is the single most examinable fact of this strand.

The route to full political rights is therefore la naturalisation. French nationality can be acquired by decree after a period of residence, subject to conditions including language and civic knowledge, and by declaration through marriage; separately, a child born in France to foreign parents can acquire French nationality at majority under conditions of residence, which is the French version of le droit du sol operating alongside le droit du sang. The vocabulary matters: la naturalisation, la double nationalité (permitted in France), un binational, la déchéance de nationalité - a highly contested measure whose very discussion has been politically explosive.

Where formal political rights are absent, engagement takes other forms, and these are the substance of the strand. Le mouvement associatif: associations of residents, parents, cultural and religious bodies, and organisations defending the rights of foreign nationals. Le syndicalisme: unions have historically been a route into collective action for immigrant workers, notably in industry. Les mobilisations spécifiques: movements of sans-papiers demanding regularisation have organised occupations and strikes, sometimes with union support. And la représentation élue: the presence of elected representatives from immigrant backgrounds has increased, though French debate notes it remains limited relative to the population - a claim to state as a trend rather than a figure.

The critical question worth arguing is whether the French republican model helps or hinders political integration. In its favour: citizenship is open and, once acquired, formally complete, with no category of second-class citizen; there are no ethnic electoral categories. Against: the wait for citizenship is long, non-EU residents are excluded from even local decisions that affect them daily, and the refusal to count origins makes under-representation hard to demonstrate. Say it in French as: le modèle français promet une égalité complète, mais il la fait attendre, et cette attente est elle-même un obstacle à la participation.

Worked example

Translation into French: the voting-rights argument

Translate into French: Foreigners who have lived in France for twenty years pay taxes but cannot vote in local elections, unless they are citizens of a European Union country. Successive governments have promised to change this, without ever doing so.

Handle the perfect with for
who have lived in France for twenty years = qui vivent en France depuis vingt ans. French uses the present with depuis where English uses the perfect. If the residence had ended you would need a past tense, but here it continues.
Handle cannot vote in local elections
ne peuvent pas voter aux élections locales - the preposition is à, contracted to aux. voter à une élection, but voter pour un candidat. Getting the preposition right is a small, reliable accuracy mark.
Handle unless
à moins qu'ils ne soient ressortissants d'un pays de l'Union européenne. à moins que takes the subjunctive and traditionally carries the expletive ne, which is not a negative. un ressortissant is the exact word for a national of a country.
Handle Successive governments
Les gouvernements successifs - the adjective follows the noun. ont promis de changer cela: promettre de takes de before the infinitive.
Handle without ever doing so
sans jamais le faire. sans takes an infinitive, jamais sits between sans and the infinitive, and the neuter le stands for the whole preceding action. The calque sans jamais faire ainsi is not French.

Result: Les étrangers qui vivent en France depuis vingt ans paient des impôts mais ne peuvent pas voter aux élections locales, à moins qu'ils ne soient ressortissants d'un pays de l'Union européenne. Les gouvernements successifs ont promis de changer cela, sans jamais le faire.

Typical mistakes

Assuming long-term foreign residents can vote locally in France as they can in some other countries; only EU nationals can.
Describing France as a pure droit du sol country; birth in France does not by itself confer nationality at birth to the children of foreign parents.

Active revision

Expliquez en français, en 120 mots, quelles formes prend l'engagement politique des personnes qui n'ont pas le droit de vote, avec au moins deux exemples concrets.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA)

Le lexique et les tournures: precise French for a charged debate#

StandardAQA 7652 3.2.2 - La politique et l'immigrationAQA 7652 3.3 Grammar

The field in blocks. Les personnes: un migrant, un immigré, un étranger, un ressortissant, un demandeur d'asile, un réfugié, un sans-papiers, un binational, un expatrié. Les statuts: un visa, un titre de séjour, une carte de résident, l'asile, la protection subsidiaire, la naturalisation, une OQTF, une régularisation. Les institutions: l'OFPRA, la CNDA, l'OFII, la préfecture, Frontex, l'espace Schengen. Les phénomènes: les flux migratoires, le regroupement familial, l'exil, la diaspora, la fuite des cerveaux, les remises or les transferts de fonds vers le pays d'origine.

Vocabulary here is politically loaded, and choosing it is an act of analysis. Note the pairs: un migrant (neutral) against un clandestin (loaded); l'accueil (reception) against l'invasion (polemical); une régularisation against une amnistie; un flux against une vague or un afflux, both of which import a metaphor of flooding. French debate itself argues about these words - la bataille des mots précède la bataille des idées - and a candidate who observes that a text's vocabulary already contains its argument is doing exactly what AO4 describes. Note also that un expatrié and un immigré often denote the same act performed by people of different origins, which is a sharp observation to be able to make in French.

Grammatically, hedging is the skill this sub-theme demands. Modal distance: il semblerait que + subjonctif, on peut supposer que, tout porte à croire que, rien ne permet d'affirmer que. Restriction: dans une certaine mesure, en partie, sous certaines conditions, ne... que. Attribution: selon, d'après, aux dires de, ses partisans soutiennent que. Correction: non pas... mais, il ne s'agit pas tant de... que de. And the conditional of report for any claim you cannot verify: selon plusieurs études, la contribution des immigrés aux finances publiques serait globalement positive - the conditional does the honest work of marking the claim as reported.

Finally, register discipline. Avoid absolute quantifiers you cannot support - tous, aucun, la totalité - and prefer une part importante, une minorité, la plupart. Avoid emotive adjectives in your own voice; report them if a text uses them. And where you do not know, say so in French rather than inventing: les chiffres varient selon les sources et les définitions retenues. That sentence is true, useful and safe, and it demonstrates exactly the critical care that separates a top answer from a confident but unreliable one.

Worked example

Rewriting loaded sentences into neutral French

Rewrite each sentence so that the loading is removed or attributed, and explain the change: (1) La France est envahie par des clandestins. (2) Tous les immigrés profitent des aides sociales. (3) L'immigration coûte des milliards.

Sentence 1 - two loaded terms
envahie imports a military metaphor and clandestins criminalises. Neutral version: Le nombre de personnes en situation irrégulière sur le territoire français fait l'objet de débats. If you want to report the claim rather than delete it: Certains discours parlent d'une « invasion », terme qui relève de la polémique plus que de la description.
Sentence 2 - an absolute quantifier
Tous is indefensible and profitent is loaded. Neutral version: Une partie des immigrés perçoit des prestations sociales, comme une partie de l'ensemble de la population. The comparison is what makes the sentence informative rather than insinuating.
Sentence 3 - an unsupported figure
des milliards is a figure without a source or a definition. Neutral version: Le bilan budgétaire de l'immigration fait l'objet d'évaluations divergentes, selon que l'on y inclut ou non les cotisations et les impôts versés. Naming the methodological question is far stronger than counter-asserting a figure.
Note what you have gained
Three things: accuracy, a defensible position under follow-up questions, and the demonstration of critical reading. None of this requires you to take a side, and all of it is credited under AO4.
Keep the tool for the exam
If a stimulus card carries a loaded phrase, this is the technique: name the loading, restate neutrally, then argue. It works on every contested sub-theme in the specification.

Result: (1) Le nombre de personnes en situation irrégulière fait l'objet de débats ; le terme d'« invasion » relève de la polémique plutôt que de la description. (2) Une partie des immigrés perçoit des prestations sociales, comme une partie de l'ensemble de la population. (3) Le bilan budgétaire de l'immigration fait l'objet d'évaluations divergentes, selon que l'on y inclut ou non les cotisations et impôts versés.

Typical mistakes

Using un clandestin or une invasion in your own voice; these are polemical terms to be reported, not adopted.
Confusing un émigré (someone who has left a country) with un immigré (someone who has arrived in one) - the same person, seen from opposite ends.

Active revision

Prenez cinq affirmations chiffrées sur l'immigration et réécrivez-les en français sans chiffre, à l'aide de quantifieurs prudents et du conditionnel de rumeur.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - grammar (AQA)

En épreuve: nuance, evidence and self-control#

AdvancedAQA 7652 4.4 Paper 1 - Listening, reading and writingAQA 7652 4.6 Paper 3 - Speaking, part one

AQA's requirement that material refer to at least two French-speaking countries other than France applies with particular force here, because migration is a francophone-wide phenomenon and not only a French one. Belgium and Switzerland have their own migration politics; Canada and Quebec operate points-based selection systems that French debate frequently cites; Morocco, Algeria, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire are countries of emigration, of transit and increasingly of immigration themselves; and Lebanon and several African states host very large refugee populations. Preparing one accurate non-French example protects you against a passage set outside France.

Listening and reading material may include testimony, which brings a specific comprehension challenge: distinguishing what happened from how the speaker judges it, and hearing the implicit. Watch for the pluperfect used to explain a decision - j'avais tout perdu, alors je suis parti - and for understatement and euphemism, which testimony on migration uses heavily. Watch also for reported obligation - il a fallu que, on m'a dit que je devais - which signals constraint rather than choice, and is often what a question about motivation is targeting.

For translation, the recurring items are: a border = une frontière; to cross = franchir or traverser; an asylum seeker = un demandeur d'asile; a residence permit = un titre de séjour; to apply for asylum = demander l'asile; a work permit = une autorisation de travail; to settle = s'installer; to send money home = envoyer de l'argent au pays; a smuggler = un passeur; to be deported = être expulsé. Note that expulser and reconduire à la frontière are the standard French terms, and that le pays d'accueil (host country) and le pays d'origine are the neutral pair.

For the card, self-control is the whole strategy. Three rules. First, attribute contested claims rather than voicing them, and name the loading of any polemical phrase on the card. Second, prefer mechanisms to statistics: explain why family reunification exists, why Dublin puts pressure on southern states, why regularisation is done case by case - none of which requires a number. Third, take a position at the end, because AO4 requires one, but make it a conditional or qualified position. Two questions for the examiner: Pensez-vous que l'Union européenne devrait mieux répartir l'accueil des demandeurs d'asile ? and Selon vous, le droit de vote local devrait-il être accordé aux résidents étrangers de longue durée ?

Worked example

Hearing constraint in a migration testimony

A speaker says: « Je n'avais pas prévu de partir. Mais l'usine avait fermé, et mon frère, lui, était déjà là-bas. On m'a dit qu'il y avait du travail. Alors voilà. » The question asks: Pourquoi le locuteur a-t-il quitté son pays ?

Read the pluperfects
n'avais pas prévu, avait fermé, était déjà là-bas - three pluperfects setting up the situation that preceded the departure. The pluperfect is doing the causal work: these are the conditions that produced the decision.
Note the negated intention
Je n'avais pas prévu de partir explicitly denies a plan. So the answer must present the departure as forced by circumstances, not chosen - and a question asking pourquoi is precisely testing whether you noticed.
Note the two pull factors
mon frère... était déjà là-bas is a family network; On m'a dit qu'il y avait du travail is reported information about work. Both are pull factors, and the impersonal on marks the information as second-hand.
Note the closing Alors voilà
Alors voilà is a filler that closes the account with resignation - there was nothing more to say. It signals attitude, not content, so it belongs in an attitude answer, not in this one.
Write the answer
Combine the push factor (the factory closing) with the two pull factors, and mark the absence of a plan. Give only what is asked.

Result: Il n'avait pas l'intention d'émigrer : c'est la fermeture de l'usine qui l'y a contraint. Deux éléments l'ont orienté vers ce pays : la présence de son frère, déjà installé, et l'information, rapportée par d'autres, qu'on y trouvait du travail.

Typical mistakes

Inventing migration statistics, which are contested even among specialists and vary by definition.
Adopting the card's loaded vocabulary instead of naming it and restating the question neutrally.

Active revision

Préparez trois réponses de 45 secondes à des questions sensibles sur l'immigration, chacune contenant une attribution, un mécanisme expliqué et une position finale nuancée.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - scheme of assessment (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Politics and immigration

5 sections~24 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4

Politics and immigration

Key points

Translation into English: a policy passage

Key points

Attributing positions without endorsing them

Key points

Translation into French: the voting-rights argument

Key points

Rewriting loaded sentences into neutral French

Key points

Hearing constraint in a migration testimony

Sources

Politics and immigration

Key points

Translation into English: a policy passage

Key points

Attributing positions without endorsing them

Key points

Translation into French: the voting-rights argument

Key points

Rewriting loaded sentences into neutral French

Key points

Hearing constraint in a migration testimony

Sources