PARIS – Nine months after its president declared a “war” against the coronavirus, France announced on Tuesday that it had expedited hundreds of citizenship applications from foreign front workers who had isolated themselves in the war.
“Foreign workers gave their time during the Covid crisis and took action for all of us,” said Marlene Schiappa, the junior minister for French citizenship. “Now it is up to the Republic to take a step towards them.”
Sushiappa said the beneficiaries include not only health care workers, but also garbage collectors, housekeepers and cashiers.
Rapid tracking measures are a significant departure for a country that has adopted increasingly strict immigration rules. Engaged in paperwork, applications for citizenship can take years to complete, and the number of naturalizations has been declining over the years.
According to figures from the National Institute of Statistical Economic Studies, about 48,000 people acquired French nationality through naturalization last year, or about 18 per cent less than 201.
The government took the step in September, when France was preparing for a second wave of epidemics. It was announced on Tuesday that about 700 foreigners who had been exposed to potential coronavirus infection through their work have since been put on a fast track to naturalization.
Tunisian-born physiotherapist Aziz Youssef, who immigrated to France in 2014, said naturalization was a “barrier”. He remembered to send the first application in late 2016 after graduating with a degree in physiotherapy – and was given an appointment a year later.
Mr Yusuf, who said he had visited dozens of isolation patients during the first wave of the epidemic, said his application was expected to be completed by 2022. But, after learning about the government’s new exceptions for front workers, he investigated with local officials, who quickly tracked him. Sanatan interviewed him in early December.
“Everything went very fast,” Mr Yusuf said. He added that he sees acceleration as “a form of recognition of the work that was done.”
The first coronavirus wave in France came close to breaking the country’s health care system – and frontline workers were at greater risk than most. So Ms. Shiappa asked regional officials to expedite the citizenship applications of foreign workers who were among them.
Ms. “They actively participated in the national effort with dedication and courage,” Shiappa wrote in a letter to regional officials.
More than 600,000 deaths and million from coronavirus. With nearly a million reported cases of coronavirus infection, France has paid a heavy toll on the epidemic. With the failure to rapidly reduce infection rates as predicted, the French government recently decided to delay the relaxation of some lockdown restrictions.
More than 70 applicants have obtained citizenship since September and 693 more are in the final stages of the process, officials said. Although their nationalities have not been disclosed, the beneficiaries include mainly health care and social workers as well as shop workers and civil servants.
There are many different ways to obtain citizenship in France: through marriage; In France or by birth of French parents; And by naturalization. In this last case, the applicant must have lived in the country for at least five years – or two years for immigrants with a degree obtained in France – to have a stable source and be considered integrated into French society.
In September, Ms. Schiappa also ordered authorities to reduce the duration of stay in France from five years to two years, in the case where the need to obtain citizenship through naturalization is “provided great services”.
Didier Leschi, director of the French Office of Immigration and Integration Fees, said the rapid tracking move was “part of a long tradition that can be traced back to the French Revolution for granting citizenship to the country’s beneficiaries.”
But Mr Leschi added that he has partially broken with this tradition, which usually only applies to individual and exceptional cases. “Here, a collective effort was rewarded,” he said.
This is not the first time in recent years that France has adhered to commendable measures with its strict rules of naturalization. In September 2018, Maldivian migrant Mamdouh Gassama was made a French citizen after he bravely rescued a 4-year-old boy from a balcony.
Physiotherapist Mr Youssef said he was now awaiting his final interview, where he would be tested on his historical, historical and cultural knowledge of France.
“This epidemic has declared that France needs these people: doctors, surgeons, essential workers,” Mr Yusuf said.
