PARIS – Nine months after its president declared “war” on the coronavirus, France announced Tuesday that it had accelerated hundreds of citizenship applications from foreign frontline workers who excelled in battle.
“Foreign workers gave their time and acted for all of us during the Covid crisis,” said Marlène Schiappa, France’s junior minister for citizenship. “Now it is up to the republic to take a step towards them.”
The beneficiaries include not only healthcare workers, but also garbage collectors, housekeepers and cashiers, said Ms. Schiappa.
The fast-tracking measure is a notable departure from a country that has been introducing increasingly stricter immigration rules. Citizenship applications can take years to complete, and the number of naturalizations has decreased over the years.
According to statistics from the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, around 48,000 people acquired French citizenship through naturalization last year, which is around 18 percent fewer than in 2015.
The government launched the measure in September as France prepared for a second wave of the pandemic. It was announced on Tuesday that around 700 foreigners who were exposed to possible coronavirus infection through their work have since been put on the fast lane of naturalization.
Aziz Youssef, a Tunisian-born physiotherapist who immigrated to France in 2014, said that obtaining citizenship through naturalization was “an obstacle course”. He remembered that he had submitted an application for the first time at the end of 2016 after completing his degree in physiotherapy – and received an appointment a year later.
Mr Youssef, who said he visited dozens of isolated patients during the first wave of the pandemic, had expected his application to be completed by 2022. However, after learning of the government’s new exemptions for frontline workers, he reported to the local authority authorities who hastened him. His penultimate interview took place in early December.
“Everything was accelerating very quickly,” said Youssef, adding that he saw the acceleration as “a form of recognition for a job well done”.
The first wave of coronavirus in France nearly destroyed the country’s health system – and frontline workers were at higher risk than most. Therefore, Ms. Schiappa asked regional officials to expedite citizenship applications for foreign workers among them.
Updated
Apr. 21, 2020, 6:49 am ET
“You have actively participated in the national efforts with commitment and courage,” wrote Ms. Schiappa in a letter to the regional authorities.
With more than 60,000 coronavirus-related deaths and nearly 2.5 million reported coronavirus infections, France has taken a heavy toll on the pandemic. With infection rates not falling as fast as predicted, the French government recently decided to delay easing some lockdown restrictions.
More than 70 applicants have been granted citizenship since September, and 693 more are in the final stages of the process, authorities said. Although their nationality has not been made public, the beneficiaries are mainly health and social workers, shop workers and civil servants.
There are several ways to obtain citizenship in France: through marriage; by birth in France or a French parent; and through naturalization. In this latter case, the applicant must have lived in the country for at least five years – or two years for immigrants with a qualification obtained in France – have stable resources and be considered integrated into French society.
In September, Ms. Schiappa also ordered officials to reduce the length of stay in France required to obtain citizenship through naturalization from the usual five years for “great service” to two years.
Didier Leschi, director of France’s Immigration and Integration Office, said the rapid action was part of a “long tradition dating back to the French Revolution of granting citizenship to the country’s benefactors”.
Mr Leschi added, however, that this was partly against this tradition, which generally only applied to individual and exceptional cases. “A joint effort has been rewarded here,” he said.
This was not the first time in recent years that France has deviated from its strict naturalization rules in order to reward laudable actions. In September 2018, Mamoudou Gassama, a migrant from Mali, was made a French citizen after heroically rescuing a 4-year-old boy who was hanging from a balcony.
Mr Youssef, the physiotherapist, said he is now waiting for his final interview, which will test his historical and cultural knowledge of France.
“This pandemic showed that France needs these people: doctors, surgeons, key workers,” said Youssef.
