“France cannot welcome all the misery in the world.” When it comes to immigration, this phrase coined by former French Prime minister Michel Rocard is one of Emmanuel Macron’s favourites. The president, who campaigned on a liberal, humanist platform, draws a clear distinction between refugees (eligible for asylum status) and economic migrants (who aren’t), which has fed into the harshest immigration policy in recent history, with increased numbers of migrants being deported.
In theory, those are concepts shared with, and applied by, Theresa May’s Britain. In practice, it means both countries are turning their backs on migrants, and need, at the very least, some coordination in doing so given how many migrants cross the Channel from one country to the other. Macron, who will meet May in Sandhurst later this week, wants the UK to welcome more refugees, especially children, and a bigger British financial contribution to implementing the 2003 Touquet accords, which regulate the border, which some have suggested could be moved from Calais to Dover.
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