Regulators dislike the thing they’re regulating

I recently had a conversation with a potential client who phrased something in a way that made total sense to me. He was an attorney in the US, and he said it like this: people who go into regulation of any industry typically do so because they dislike the thing they’re regulating.

And that’s the crux of the immigration system in any country, isn’t it?

Immigration control doesn’t exist because governments want to create a welcoming and efficient system for newly arrived immigrants, expats, and refugees.

It exists with the purpose of making immigrating more difficult.

And the reason I feel so strongly about making French immigration processes more accessible to you is because I believe deeply in open borders.

With the possible exception of a criminal background check, I actually don’t think there should be many restrictions on immigration at all. Why should there be?

I don’t believe that immigrants take jobs from citizens – I believe they create innovation, and contribute positively to the economy, and bring new perspectives to new employment.

I don’t believe immigrants lower wages – companies lower wages if the immigrant employee is trapped in the job because their visa is tied to it. (It’s a new type of feudalism).

I don’t believe that immigrants take more from benefits than they contribute in taxes – that’s only true if they’re working on the black market because the bureaucracy prevents them from contributing. (And many visa types actually limit the benefits you can receive).

And then there’s the whole issue of the reasons people generally want to immigrate in the first place – it’s because the countries they want to move to, like France, and the UK, and the US, have had post-colonial economic policies that keep certain countries in poverty to benefit multinational corporations and Western consumers. But, that’s a topic for another day.

The point is that when you’re considering moving to France, you need to know and navigate the rules, because they are not designed to help you through the process. They are intended to be difficult. And every small change to procedure is intended to make it easier to reject an application.

But if you have resources, and a strong passport, and support, you can be successful.