French parents fight against immigrants' expulsion

PARIS, June 22: After walking her two children to their Paris school in the morning, Fatma Arbane returns to the stuffy hotel room in which her family eats and sleeps -- and worries the police will come looking for her.

Fatma and her husband Hamid arrived from Algeria five years ago, hoping to find a better life in France. They have camped in shabby hotels across Paris since, unable to gain a residency permit and regularly threatened with expulsion.

''I'm worried about going out sometimes because I fear they'll arrest me. When I see a policeman, I cross the street,'' Hamid said, sitting on a small sofa that serves the family as bed, chair and workplace in their home in northeastern Paris.

Arbane said she still worried when her husband went out on his own but in recent weeks, fear has given way to timid hope.

The 31-year-old said she had been too shy and ashamed for a long time to explain her situation to the mothers of her children's classmates. When she finally did so last month, her case sparked a wave of solidarity from other parents.

Mothers and fathers at the primary school held protest rallies, collected signatures and lobbied local officials to grant residency status to the family, mirroring a movement sweeping through schools across France in recent weeks.

France's conservative government said last October that children should not be expelled before the end of the school year, but that moratorium will expire this month, and support groups fear mass deportations following that date.

''The government has set itself the target of 26,000 (expulsions) by the end of 2006,'' said Anne de Blic, an energetic mother at the Arbane's school who was distributing leaflets against the family's expulsion.

''But if the entire neighbourhood says 'No', we can put a lot of pressure on officials.'' NEW HOPE? Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to tighten French immigration rules after youths in Paris's poor suburbs -- many of them descendants of immigrants -- torched thousands of cars in riots last year.

Some 4.5 million immigrants live in France, official data show.

The Interior Ministry estimates there are between 200,000 and 400,000 illegal foreigners in the country.

Many of the rioting youths said they were fed up with discrimination and immigrants' bleak living conditions -- often on the outskirts of the French capital, in neighbourhoods made up of high-rise buildings and with little public transport.

A draft law by Sarkozy makes it harder for resident immigrants to bring their families here, forces newcomers to take French civics lessons and ends illegal migrants' right to apply for a residence permit after 10 years in France. The law, which is being debated in parliament, has triggered protests in France and former colonies in West Africa, with critics saying it hurts immigrants who are already living on the margins of society.

The protesters celebrated a small victory this month, when Sarkozy announced that some illegal immigrants could be granted residency status if their children attended French schools, were born here or had come to France at a very young age and had a ''real willingness to integrate''.

Arbane said she hoped the measure would allow her family to stay in France, where her three-year-old daughter was born.

Campaigners said Sarkozy's move was a direct response to their protest movement, but added the minister also wanted to give himself a more humane image via a flawed measure.

''It leaves the local officials with a lot of discretion. What does 'well integrated' mean?'' said Richard Moyon, one of the founders of the RESF Education Without Borders Network, noting teenagers would not benefit from the provision.

COMMUNITY PRESSURE

Community support was crucial to putting pressure on local officials to apply the measure in favour of families, said Blic, who is collecting signatures in cafes, visiting immigrant families at homes and accompanying them to meetings.

''If those families don't show up on their own at the prefect's office, but with 20 people behind them, they are treated completely differently and even received in a different room,'' she said.

Immigrant parents have also received support from left-wing politicians who have become godparents to immigrant children, vowing to help them through the administrative process.

Arbane said the parents' support had helped ease her fears about a possible expulsion. ''I wasn't able to sleep before, but I feel a lot more optimistic now,'' she said.

''This is home. Our children wouldn't be happy in Algeria. It's a totally different system,'' she said.

Kagno, a mother-of-three, agreed. Since leaving Senegal in 1999, the 30-year-old has moved from squats to hotels and is now afraid she might be forced to go back to Africa.

''I'm still hopeful. This is our home,'' she said, cradling her youngest baby in her dark hotel room. ''And if we have our papers in order, we might finally be able to find a flat.''

REUTERS