• zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It isn't even as though the French don't have a ravenous demand for cheap African labor. The state bureaucracy just loves to haze southern migrants as a kind-of ritualized punishment for crossing Mediterranean.

    As soon as they're legalized, they get snapped up by employers hungry for below-market rate talent and desperation-driven hard work. They rapidly urbanize their corners of the city and boost the flagging economy. Their kids leap head first into the local culture, excited to fit in. They pay far more than their fair share of taxes, they're far less likely to commit crime, they outperform in school, and they generally make the country happier, healthier, and wealthier.

    French authorities just feel the need to kick them in the ribs for a year or a decade or a lifetime, because they can.