While Austria has just suspended family reunification, a majority of French people seem ready to take the same step. According to a CSA poll for CNews, Europe 1, and the JDD, 57% of those surveyed want to end this immigration policy, which allows the families of foreigners legally established in the country to join them. This figure rises to 71% among 18-24 year-olds, who are often perceived as the most favorable to opening up immigration. The finding is clear: family reunification is no longer supported by public opinion.
For too long, this provision, enshrined in French law since 1976, has opened the doors to uncontrolled immigration, defying any logic of integration or national interest. It has contributed to the increase in the number of foreigners living in France without any real requirements being imposed in terms of language proficiency, employment, or respect for republican values. This is immigration for settlement by administrative means, without any real democratic debate.
Pressure on public services and national cohesion
The Austrian model highlights what many French people feel: unlimited reception has reached its limits. Saturated housing, overcrowded schools, strained health services… Family reunification contributes to a burden on an already fragile social system. Far from fostering successful integration, it sometimes leads to community withdrawal, cultural tensions, and the worsening of territorial and identity divides.
Austrian Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm justifies the suspension by the need to "protect healthcare, employment, and education systems." This observation could be echoed word for word in France. Successful integration, it is repeatedly emphasized, requires reciprocal efforts. However, the massive influx of families from countries where cultural codes are far removed from our own makes this goal difficult to achieve, even illusory.
For a selective and responsible immigration
This is not about denying the right to family life, but about reorienting our migration policy towards a logic of merit, usefulness, and capacity for integration. France cannot, indefinitely, welcome the relatives of all those it has already admitted, without considering the economic, cultural, and security impact. This is especially true since, unlike other types of immigration, family reunification is exempt from any selection process.
In a context where it is difficult to expel those in an irregular situation, where OQTFs (obligations to leave French territory) remain a dead letter in half of cases, continuing to open the borders in the name of family is political nonsense, a costly escape and, for many, a feeling of abandoning common sense.
The time has come to demonstrate firmness and clarity. Suspending family reunification, as Austria is doing today, is not an act of rejection, but an act of responsibility. It means giving priority to the French, protecting public services, restoring migratory sovereignty, and rebuilding a reception policy that truly serves the country.
