Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!onodera-news!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!yahoobb218120102020.bbtec.NET!not-for-mail From: Eric Takabayashi Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Naturalization process for France Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2003 19:30:19 +0900 Lines: 160 Message-ID: <3FA4DCBB.C7681EC7@yahoo.co.jp> Reply-To: etakajp@yahoo.co.jp NNTP-Posting-Host: yahoobb218120102020.bbtec.net (218.120.102.20) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de 1067769157 40432604 218.120.102.20 (16 [138107]) X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 (Macintosh; U; PPC) X-Accept-Language: ja,en Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:7203 Please cc, come on back and tell me how irrelevant language and culture are to nationality. Would you care to peruse the naturalization requirements for your own country, or comment on the fact that "automatic" citizenship for the second generation was only reinstated in 1998: "In short, birthright citizenship has never been unconditional for second generation migrants in France." I do not consider seven month's processing time to be a long wait, but this writer considers it "very long". The way France also requires the entire family to naturalize is also questionable. Most importantly, please comment on the "social and cultural assimilation" or proof of assimilation requirement to becoming a citizen in France, including LANGUAGE skill or if the applicant "participates in French cultural life". Indeed: - "Reasons to postponea [sic] demand can be grounded upon insufficient knowledge of French." - "Lack of societal assimilation is a good example to demonstrate the capricious nature of the French system." - "Another thorny justification to reject citizenship claims was the use of the discretionary right enjoyed by public officials. In 20% of all rejected cases, the decision was based on the discretionary margin of the administration. In other words the applicant was refused citizenship though he fulfilled all requirements." - "Moreover, many civil servants state, that they feel overworked and do not see any incentive to raise the naturalization numbers." - "in the case of Germany the government changed the naturalization laws for the first generation in 1990, 1993 and 1999, whereas the French government never even considered any modification to be necessary. Hence, since the creation of the Code de la nationalit in 1945, the conditions for the first generation to naturalize, were not addressed in any of the French citizenship reform measures." Go on, cc, tell us how irrelevant all these are to nationality. Go on and tell us how irrelevant it is for people in France not to know the local language and culture, or question that such things even exist. http://tinyurl.com/tbr6 2.2 The Naturalization of the First Generation in France: A Waiting Game. The conditions for naturalization for the first generation in France are very similar to those in the German guide-lines. Contrary to the German Alien Act of 2000, the French Code Civil of 1993 (formerly the Code de la nationalit), does not provide a legal claim for naturalization. Even if the applicant fulfils all requirements, he can be refused by means of a discretionary decision. The actual requirements are: Art. 21 of the Code Civil of 1993: Naturalization of aliens - minimum residence time of 5 years, - no criminal record - secured income and - societal and cultural assimilation. As in Germany, shorter residence time is required for family members and some other groups. However, the flip side to this is that the entire family is expected to naturalize. Otherwise, the applicant can be denied citizenship. In Germany, this provision was abolished in 1991. What the French state does not require from the applicant is that he renounce his former citizenship. In other words, dual nationality is tolerated without being explicitly stated in the laws. The requirements for the proof of assimilation are in some aspects more difficult than in Germany. Beside the knowledge of French, the civil administration seeks to verify if the applicant has contact with other French persons, if he participates in French cultural life or is a member of a sports club, and if he is assimilated to French customs and traditions. In some cases, this might be easy to identify. For example political extreme positions or polygamy are clear grounds to refuse citizenship. But in most other cases this is an ambiguous requirement. Is wearing a scarf a sign for incomplete assimilation? In those cases the assessment depends on the local prefecture. In the French guidelines, not only assimilation but also the applicant's motivation is an important criterion. The applicant is expected to have an "ethical impeccable" motivation to acquire French citizenship. Another objection may be poor health condition of the applicant. In case of doubt, the prefect can demand an official health record. The condition of impunity (tre de bonne vie et murs) goes further than having a clean criminal record for the past ten years- both in France and in the country of origin. Though exceptions can be made for smaller offenses, the prefect also has to deliver a report on the general moral behavior of the applicant. Typical for France is a decentralized structure to receive applications and a centralized structure to decide them. This means, that the local prefect receives the request and determines if the documents are complete and properly filled out. He then delivers his opinion on every dossier by either approving or disapproving to the naturalization request. The dossier is send to the central Direction de Migration et Population (henceforth, DPM) in Nantes, which makes the final decision. The advantage of such a centralized procedure is that regional differences in evaluating cases can be compensated. Though, if potential applicants are discouraged by the local administration to apply for naturalization, the DPM is not able to intervene. The disadvantages are the proximity to the DPM, the length of processing and the responsibility of a dozen or more civil servants to decide all naturalization cases in France. The time to process an application is very long. In Paris, where 50% of all naturalization take place, the waiting time for the applicants amounted in 1997 to seven months for a initial meeting with a staff member and additional eight months to have the obligatory interview in which assimilation potential and personal motivation is examined. The delivery to the DPM took another ten months. As in Germany, the bureaucratic process varied in extremes from city to city. According to a study of seven selected prefectures undertaken by the trade union CFDT, the processing lasted between five months in the prefecture of Charente and over three years in the prefecture of Nord.[viii] Corresponding to the German situation, the time to process the application does not correlate with the actual number of aliens or applicants in the region. Rather, the organizational structure and personnel seem to be important reasons for the differences. The prefectures themselves stated the lack of professional education of their administrators and of unified regulations as the most pressing matters in the application review process. Moreover, naturalization is only one of the many tasks of the prefectures. Until 1998, naturalization did not enjoy any priority either in the prefectures or in the central DPM, because there was no time limit for their processing. With the reform in 1998, this changed. The parliament decided to limit the process to a maximum of eighteen months. If the administration does not decide the case in time, the applicant automatically becomes a French citizen. This is nothing new for France, as time limits have already existed for foreign born spouses and for the young migrants ( manifestants de volont).