Algeria : Exploitation of Migration Issue Reveals Some French Circles’ Political Decay

ALGIERS – Mujaheed Salah Goudjil, the speaker of the Algerian Council of the Nation, said that the political exploitation of the migration issue and the unjust attacks against Algerian immigration reveal the decay of some French political circles.

“Using the migration issue as a political tool and specifically targeting Algerian immigrants unfairly clearly shows the political deterioration affecting some, but not all, of the French political circles,” affirmed Goudjil in an article published Thursday in several national newspapers.

“Fortunately, he added, “the stance of the Revolution, as declared in the November 1 proclamation, has consistently differentiated between the French people and French colonialism.”

Goudjil lamented that “certain politicians, lacking a serious political vision and aligning themselves with the far-right or even the so-called conservative right, readily exploit socio-economic crises. They unjustly blame immigrant communities through demagogic and populist rhetoric, singling out the legally settled Algerian community in France.”

Referring to the December 27, 1968 agreement between Algeria and France, which outlines the conditions for Algerians’ movement, residence, and employment in France, Goudjil pointed out that “certain French political circles now view this agreement as overly favourable to Algeria. They argue it deviates from France’s standard legal framework on migration.” He noted that “some of these circles call for its revision, while others demand its complete abolition.” “What they conveniently overlook,” he added, “is that this agreement has already undergone revisions in 1985, 1994, and 2001, effectively nullifying its original purpose.”

“The truth, however, is quite the opposite,” he underlined, pointing out that “in fact, it would be more accurate to say that this agreement has predominantly benefited France from its signing to the present day.”

He recalled that this agreement “was concluded at the insistent request of the French side which has always benefited from the contribution of Algerians, and this extends from the era of worker immigration to the so-called chosen immigration, promoted according to a selective approach in recent years in France, by encouraging the arrival of talents and high-level graduates, without any counterpart for Algeria”.

Goudjil emphasized that the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, mentioned the Algerian-French agreement of 1968 during the recent periodic interview granted to the national media, in which he said that this agreement has become a rallying point for right-wing extremists in France.”

For him, “it is quite obvious that no one can contest the Algerian immigration’s contribution to France. To say otherwise would be an insult to history and the thousands of Algerians who lost their lives on the battlefields during the two great world wars,” he added.”

In this regard, mujaheed Salah Goudjil highlighted the historical background of Algerian immigration to France. He explained, “It began during World War I (1914-1918), when Algerians were conscripted into the French army to fight against Germany.” Goudjil added that this pattern repeated itself “on the brink of World War II, with a considerable number of Algerians again mobilized within the French military to combat Hitler’s Nazi Germany.”

Goudjil pointed out that France had turned to Algerians “as an essential workforce for France’s post-war reconstruction.” He emphasized that “this wave of Algerian immigration was also involuntary, as the political, socioeconomic, and cultural conditions imposed on Algerians under French colonial rule were the root cause of this forced exodus.”