Automatic French Citizenship Questioned

AP:

A minister has questioned the automatic right to citizenship for anyone born on French territory overseas, comments that the opposition Socialist Party called "scandalous."

Citizenship for anybody born on French soil is widely considered an untouchable right, despite years of debate over how to cope with growing illegal immigration. The immigration issue has previously focused on mainland France - not overseas territories which are part of France.

Francois Baroin, France's minister for overseas territories, said questioning the right to citizenship for those born on French soil "should no longer be taboo."

"I open the debate on this question," Baroin told RFO radio Saturday.

"The question about these little territories with a growing flux of illegal immigration ... is no longer a problem of social cohesion like in mainland France, it is a question of sovereignty," Baroin said.

Baroin told RFO that over 30 percent of the population of the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte is "of clandestine origin." In an interview with Le Figaro Magazine, the minister claimed residents on the nearby Comoros islands went to Mayotte "to give birth so that their children can obtain French nationality."

Malek Boutih, in charge of social issues for the Socialist Party, said such a proposal was an "entryway" for questioning citizenship rights for foreigners and their children born in France itself.

Hat tip, Writewing!

Minister sparks anger over French birthright laws