The French presidential candidates’ policies for foreigners in France

Whether it’s imposing tough French language tests, restricting access to French citizenship or even taxing foreign workers more, immigration policy matters to the lives of foreigners in France.

Although the biggest direct effects are on citizens of non-EU countries who require visas and residency permits (cartes de séjour), some politicians also plan changes to the lives of EU citizens in France.

So let’s have a look at what the candidates in France’s 2027 presidential elections say about their immigration policy.

Quick caveat – most parties have not published their full manifesto yet, so more policies could be unveiled later, while others have little to no detail at this stage. Immigration plays a bigger part in some parties’ policies than others, so some parties have more detailed plans than others.

This article looks only at immigration policies – naturally, the lives of foreigners in France are also affected by more general issues such as the economy, and policies on health, education and defence. Within each block, we’ve arranged the candidates roughly in order of their current poll ratings.

Far-right and right

Let’s start with the right – immigration is a totemic issue for the parties at the far right of the political spectrum, and as such their candidates have had the most to say so far about the topic. 

Marine Le Pen (Rassemblement National) – one of the flagship policies of current frontrunner Marine Le Pen is ‘French preference’, a policy that would bar non-French nationals (including EU citizens) from certain jobs, as well as housing and benefits. She also plans to tax businesses an extra €1,000 per year for every non-EU citizen that they employ.

She says that: “French nationality will once again become a privilege that is either inherited or earned,” although she has not so far provided details on how she will change the citizenship application process, which already has many requirements for naturalisation, including a minimum level of French language and financial resources.

The party’s overall policy is to drastically reduce new immigration, although it has so far given little concrete detail of how it plans to overhaul the visa system.

Meanwhile, there will be ‘encouragement’ of those already here to leave – as well as the French preference policies, she has announced that foreigners who are unemployed for more than one year and cannot support themselves financially will no longer be able to renew their residency permit.

She also intends to increase the fees for international students and hike the taxes charged on money transfers to non-EU countries.

READ ALSO: What would a Le Pen presidency mean for foreigners in France?

Eric Zemmour (Reconquête) – the TV pundit turned far-right politician calls for a total halt on new immigration, and makes little distinction between legal and illegal migration. He wants to end completely the droit du sol – which allows children born in France to two foreign parents to claim French citizenship once they reach the age of 13. 

He is also in favour of ending the right to almost all social benefits for non-French citizens, and of ending all ‘family-linked’ immigration, including spouse visas.

Although he stops short of advocating a ‘Frexit’, he is anti-EU and wants to introduce a national preference that would limit access of non-French citizens – including citizens of EU countries – to areas including housing, benefits and some types of employment. Any foreigners on chômage (unemployment) would be expelled after six months.

He is a long-time advocate of toughening conditions for French citizenship, raising the qualifying period from five years of residence to 10 years and demanding “perfect mastery” of the French language, “real” integration and the absence of any criminal record.

Bruno Retailleau (Les Républicains) – the Les Républicains party previously dominated France as part of the two-party system and produced presidents including Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. These days, it is much reduced electorally and lurching sharply to the right under the leadership of Retailleau, who briefly held the post of Interior Minister under Emmanuel Macron in 2025.

He calls for a referendum on immigration – not only would this potentially give him a sweeping mandate, but a referendum can also be a mechanism for changing the French constitution to remove or amend clauses dealing with anti-discrimination.

He is in favour of fixed quotas for both visas and cartes de séjour, and is in favour of the expulsion of all foreigners convicted of a crime.

He wants to limit entitlement of foreigners to social benefits to those who have been legally resident for five years or more, end droit du sol and drastically reduce family reunification visas/cartes de séjour. 

David Lisnard (Nouvelle Énergie) – the mayor of Cannes has recently resigned from Les Républicains and is running on a ticket of returning the party to the centre right.

His main focus is to drastically cut what he sees as “too much” immigration in France – visa quotas, prioritising work-based immigration and only for sectors with a labour shortage, and “strictly limiting” the carte de séjour vie privée et familiale. He also wants to make checks on immigration status mandatory when dealing with any official body such as hospitals, social services, préfectures and the tax office.

Much of his programme concerns tough measures about illegal migration, but he also proposed a referendum on ‘other questions’ about immigration.

Centre

Edouard Philippe (Horizons) – the Horizons party leader and former prime minister under Emmanuel Macron has a headline target for immigration – he wants to halve legal migration to France.

Although he has not so far provided details, we can assume this means big changes to the visa system for new arrivals, with Philippe saying that he wanted to prioritise work-related migration and “tackle” family reunification.

He is in favour of migration quotas and wants a “real policy of integration” including language, work and French values.

Gabriel Attal (Renaissance) – another former Macron PM, Attal promotes a “selective and controlled” immigration, including restricting the rights to family reunification visas/cartes de séjour and says that France must “welcome fewer people, but welcome them better” with improved integration systems.

He wants to prioritise work-based immigration and promotes “a ‘work-first’ approach, where we welcome the skills and talents we need on the basis of a points-based system, as in Canada, founded on simple criteria: a stable job offer, accommodation, the ability to speak French, and an understanding of and respect for our values.”

He is opposed to the idea of ‘French preference’ but in favour of regularising the status of undocumented migrants, although only in targeted areas, including in industries with a labour or skills shortage.

Far-left and left

Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France Insoumise) – the current frontrunner of the far-left wants to regularise the status of undocumented migrants in France in industries with a labour shortage, to allow them to work without the risk of exploitation.

His party has opposed proposals for migration quotas, and restrictions on the ‘droit du sol‘ or birthright citizenship and is also opposed to the ‘French preference’ policy. The party also attempted, unsuccessfully, to add extra protections for foreign women to the country’s comprehensive new law on gender-related violence.

He also wants to introduce a récépissé for anyone stopped by police for an ID check, in order to try and stop the racial profiling that leads to people of colour being disproportionately targeted in the supposedly random checks.

Raphaël Glucksmann (Place Publique) – the candidate who won the combined primary of the centre-left says that he wants “a humanist and realistic migration policy, which respects the right of asylum and organises integration”.

Most of his policies concern asylum seekers, rather than those who come to France with a visa or those who are already legally resident. He wants to reduce to six months the limit for dealing with asylum claims, improve EU cooperation on asylum and step up legal action against people smugglers.

However, he also wants to scrap the 2024 Immigration law (which raised the French language levels required for long-term residency and citizenship, among other things) and make the multi-year carte de séjour the default option, rather than the one-year card.

Marine Tondelier (Greens) – the Green leader promotes a “policy of welcome” towards asylum seekers and proposes strengthening legal rights of migration to avoid illegal migration and combat people smuggling.

She is opposed to migration quotas and to any changes to the droit du sol.

Fabien Roussel (Communist) – the Communist Party leader wants to regularise the status of undocumented migrants, in order to avoid exploitation. It’s not clear whether he means a general amnesty, or to improve the current – complicated and slow – system for regularisation.

More vaguely, he wants to welcome asylum seekers with dignity and fight against discrimination.

Nathalie Arthaud (Lutte Ouvrière) – the Trotskyist candidate (and schoolteacher) is in favour of regularising the status of all undocumented workers, and believes that French and non-French people should be treated the same when it comes to employment. She is a believer in the free movement of people.

We will update this article as an when full manifestos are published and the candidates announce or clarify their policies