Free Paper Sample: Letter to a Senator

Madam Senator,

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I am pleased to address you in my capacity as President of the Public Likes Association of the Federal Capital to let you know the following observations to the draft law on immigration reform. During the vote on the first reading of the finance bill for 2020, the government introduced last-minute amendments to the bill to materialize three measures aimed at further tightening our country's migration policy.

These three measures - two in terms of access to health services, and one aimed at reducing the time taken to examine asylum applications - seem to us to be particularly contrary to fundamental rights and to the principles of humanity and fraternity, which should guide government action. Therefore, we ask you to speak out against these government amendments, whether at first reading in the Senate or second reading in the National Assembly.

At the heart of debates for many years, healthcare access systems for foreigners are regularly criticized for their supposedly expensive nature and easily subject to fraud.

The "health" budget adopted under the 2020 finance law contains several amendments aimed at reducing the right to health care for foreigners. It is thus planned to introduce, for asylum seekers, a waiting period of three months after submitting the asylum application before being able to access Universal Health Protection. This measure constitutes a tangible setback in the rights of asylum seekers.

This proposal is based on an erroneous view of an asylum crisis, which would result in the massive arrival of "false" asylum seekers who came to the country to unduly benefit from protection systems. However, multiple associations continue to demonstrate that this myth is only the fruit of false and xenophobic discourse, fed by the mass media, and that the number of asylum seekers in the country represents a minimal percentage of the population (14.4% in 2015).

My association is calling for an asylum system in which each person can have their application for protection carefully and thoroughly examined, and in which support is offered during the entire procedure.

The government justifies its provisions by an alleged uncontrollable wave of migration, unrelated to objective reality. It bases his system on an erroneous diagnosis: the real crisis at work is not that of "migrants", but those - political, social, or environmental - which precipitate people on the roads of exile, and that of the migration policies carried out for decades which have failed to provide adequate responses.

My group is involved in the Refugees International (RI), which brings together nearly 1,500 associations and citizens' groups present throughout the country. We are determined to promote the reception initiatives developed in all regions and to alert the public authorities to the seriousness of the situations experienced on the ground. In this perspective, the three measures proposed to legislators appear to us to be particularly severe. We ask you not to vote on them.

We invite you to meet with us to further discuss the questions posed by these amendments to the Finance Act, and more generally by recent government announcements on immigration. We will then be able to share with you in person our analyses and the findings on the ground and consider initiatives to advance the debate toward a more calm and humane approach to migration issues.

In the meantime, please accept, Madam Senator, the expression of our best regards.