The Problem with the Proposed French Visa Language Test
An American Hot Take: French is on the defensive but a stricter language test won't solve the problem. Letting people live and learn French in France will.
Just when I thought obtaining a French visa couldn’t get any harder the French parliament considers a new immigration bill with a French language exam.
Beginning on November 21, 2022, parliament will review immigration reform proposed by France's Interior Minister which includes a compulsory language exam to obtain a carte de séjour. This exam is only a small part of the larger proposal which centers on stricter expulsion of immigrants in France without legal standing.1
French citizenship already requires a passing mark on a language test. That makes sense: If you want to spend the rest of your life in France and call yourself French you’d better speak French. But what about those of us who seek visas to learn French or help our children become fluent? What about those of us who receive neither French healthcare nor housing assistance and are forbidden from taking French jobs? What if one spouse passes a language test and the other fails? What about people like me who are dyslexic or have other learning disabilities? There are too many “what-abouts” when it comes to a visa language requirement and many politicians know this, including French President Emmanuel Macron.
This Fall Macron punted the language exam out of the parliamentary review lineup to avoid making a decision. That hesitance signals that this exam isn’t popular, even to a president “pushing the French language in ways not seen before.” One can only kick the can so far down the road. France needs immigration reform and the language requirement is part of a larger proposal. A decision on the proposal, and thus the visa language exam, will be made in early 2023.
To understand what’s driving the political desire for a French visa exam I will first provide French language statistics. This data provides context for the second part: Why French is on the defensive. Thirdly I will describe the current tension around immigration in French parliament. Finally I’ll share some American prospective about the language exam as a visa applicant.
An estimated 409 million people speak French in 106 countries, making it one of the largest and fastest growing languages in the world. But the increase in French speakers isn’t happening here in France nor in Europe. It’s in Africa, which is home to more than 70 percent of the world’s total French-speaking population — French is the primary language in 29 of the 54 countries in Africa. Seventeen percent of the world’s total French speaking population is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. French colonization continues to shape the way many Africans speak but “the future of French is African,” declared the BBC.
Meantime in Europe French’s popularity is sliding.
Out of 23 European Union languages English is now the dominant global working language, followed by German and French. Interestingly only two E.U. countries, Ireland and Malta, count English as their primary language. Meanwhile Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese are becoming more popular as the countries that speak these languages grow in population and economic power. In the past three decades French got some serious competition, edging it out of the ranks of the top languages. According to Forbes, mainly English and German are being used in E.U. business. The article explains:
“Germans, not known for their language pride, have never pushed for German to be used as a common language in the EU institutions. The French, on the other hand, have long complained about the use of English and usually demand every press conference and press release be made in French as well as English - despite the fact that French has been ranked third [in the E.U.] both for native speakers and for language knowledge.”
Some even blame Brexit for the decline of French. “Just over a third of state secondary schools report that leaving the European Union is having a negative impact on language learning, either through student motivation and/or parental attitudes towards the subject,” according to a British Council report. In the U.K French is being usurped by Spanish. Learning a second language is now optional in favor of more math and science.
“English is winning,” a visiting American friend mentioned as store after store blasted American music and we observed French adults and children wearing shirts with English expressions. I laughed and felt smug for a moment. But now the English makes me cringe. No wonder France is on the defensive. It’s only going to make things harder for us French learners.
Clinging to the number three spot in the E.U. for language popularity, it’s no wonder the French are en garde and calling for a visa language exam. The language is even assigned a protective, not-so-secret service: The Académie française. For centuries a group of bespectacled, embroidered jacket-wearing bodyguards has kept French traditional and clarified its complicated grammar.
The Académie offers a top-down approach to language cultivation. The goal is to keep French the same despite a changing world. This is the opposite of the American Merriam-Webster dictionary, which acknowledges that English grows and changes and continually adds new words and definitions (370 new words added in September 2022!). The Paris-based Académie has been accused of being slow to adjust official French to the ways other French-speaking countries, especially those in Africa, incorporate their culture and identity into the language.
“Wesh” is a common slang greeting currently being used in France and derived from Algerian French. While some call the word a “symbol of the vitality of the French language” The Académie française has yet to even acknowledge it exists.
When a non-French word becomes popular in France it is up to The Académie to shoot it down. Take, for example, the terms “boomer” and “millennial.” The Académie would like to remind French speakers that French already has terms for these words. Stick to d’enfants du numérique instead of “millennial,” s'il vous plaît. When it comes to “boomer,” this is what The Académie has to say (translated to English… I may have to go into hiding):
“I do not know the identity of the triple imbecile or the nutty lexicologist who launched the term ‘baby boomer’ to designate the children born after the Second World War in France. The condescending irony of the neologism poorly disguised the jealousy, even the resentment he felt towards this generation that had preceded his own.”
Unfortunately while the author “will not allow anyone to call [him] a baby boomer” he does not offer a catchy alternative.
It wasn’t until 2019 that The Académie announced job titles could be feminine for the first time. Before that a female minister was called "madame le ministre." Now she is "la ministre.”
It can be said that complication is an essential part of French language and this bleeds into the culture. After living here I can attest that you will not know France unless you speak French. I’m trying my best to speak it. I often tell people how much my mouth wants to speak French. It feels good to pronounce, even when I do it so poorly. Now that I am able to understand spoken French and read a little I find so much joy in the way French express themselves. There’s good reason to want to protect French.
Despite the complicated importance of speaking French in France the visa language exam still feels extreme. That’s mostly because it is being lumped in with other elements of an immigration proposal that feels heavy-handed and racially motivated.
One member of parliament has not helped dispel that sentiment.
Earlier this month a far-right member of French Parliament shouted “go back to Africa” while a Black lawmaker was discussing migrants. Grégoire de Fournas of the far-right National Rally party says he was misunderstood and blamed his native language. The pronouns “he” and “they” are spelled differently but pronounced the same so after yelling something most people identify with racism De Fournas claimed he wasn’t referring to the speaker, Carlos Martens Bilongo, a lawmaker in the lower house for the far-left France Unbowed party, but to a boat carrying immigrants to Europe from Africa.
I don’t need to speak French fluently or which pronoun he meant to understand the true meaning of "qu'il(s) retourne(nt) en Afrique !"
Obvious racism aside, when de Fournas shouted “go back to Africa” it didn’t matter if he was referring to the speaker, Bilongo, WHO IS FRENCH, born in Villiers-le-Bel, or even his parents who are from Congo and Angola, or many of the people on the Ocean Viking, the boat of immigrants from countries including Chad and Mali. They would all pass the French language test. A colonizing country demanding that visa applicants speak French may not help narrow the pool of immigrants.2
When I watched this video of the moment “go back to Africa” was shouted (I’m the guy in the right corner) I was reminded of another loaded phrase used in America: “Speak English.” It’s a verbal slap in the face, especially when used against minorities and immigrants. It’s a hateful, verbal wall that feels impenetrable. After struggling with French I have deep empathy for anyone who goes to America hoping for a better life, a job or education but doesn’t speak English.
When lumped into a polarizing, racially-motivated immigration policy the visa language exam feels like the French version of “Speak English.”
Only twice have I encountered hostility for not speaking French3 but I certainly feel the pressure almost daily. A couple acquaintances have told me in no uncertain terms, and in French, that I am to only speak French with them. I don't see it as mean. They're trying to be helpful. At the bank, in the mobile phone store, in my children's schools, in the bakery I speak French. I now cringe when I hear Americans order at a restaurant without a single attempt at French. Not even a bonjour. Now that I speak a little French, understand more and can even read a little I empathize with the desire for language tests. But before moving here and gaining that empathy I would fail such a test and France would be short four little Americans becoming fluent in French. I like to think my brood is helping France culturally and statistically.
I cannot judge France without first judging America. But here is where my mind was blown: Visa applicants to America can currently select the language in which they want to conduct their visa interview. They have access to translation services. Don’t tell the Republicans! Certain universities and professions require a passing grade on English exam but it’s case-by-case.
Here’s another mind-blowing fact: America doesn’t have an official language. That’s not for a lack of trying. In 1981 senator Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa of California (an immigrant and an English PhD) introduced a constitutional amendment to make English the official language of the United States. It failed.
There was another attempt in 2006 but it never passed the house. Coincidence! It was part of an immigration bill! The attempt was “futile” according to Dr. Wayne Wright, a professor of language and literacy at Purdue University, in an interview with CNN.
“Number one, English is not under threat in the United States. And number two, it’s divisive,” Wright explained. It’s. Divisive.
That same excellent CNN article points to States that made bilingual education illegal and banned native languages. California’s English law wasn’t repealed until 2016 and the one in Massachusetts was repealed it in 2017.
The law still applies in the border state of Arizona.
But there’s good news: Even in America, the land of “Speak English” insults, there are some major accommodations being made to non-English speakers to help them participate in society. New Jersey’s Bill S2459 expands the state’s language access services with translating and interpreting services in 15 languages. This mandate is now the largest program of its kind in the U.S.
It took me a good six months of living in France to get over my American desire for translation as a service. I kept expecting the principal of my daughter’s middle school to summarize his presentation in English. I expected our mortgage agent to offer us contracts to sign in English (we ended up hiring a translator, I may be mistaken but I think it is a law) and I expected the postal clerk would let me tell her phone numbers and postal codes in English. Non.
Once I got over my English-translation-as-a-right mentality I found myself better at listening to French. Obtaining a French visa required me to spend months listening to French and that’s when I started understanding French. Not just the language but the people.
Back in France, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tells Le Monde his proposed immigration reform, including the language test, “will be tough on misbehavior and kind with rule-abiders.” I have a year to renew my visa and I have no doubt I will be able to pass a visa language test by then. But I will be learning French IN FRANCE, under the strict guidance of The Académie. I will be a rule-abider. I also plan on doing a bit of misbehavior. Ok, baby-boomé ?
According to the French government there are 120,000 removal orders, known as OQTF, annually but only 10 percent of them actually leave. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told Le Monde that half of the removal orders are appealed and effectively put on hold. Darmanin wants to make the process faster.
So would visa applicants from the French Caribbean. I fondly remember our children speaking French at Trader Joes with a cashier from Saint Martin. It was the first time I heard them speak French to someone not from their French-American school. It felt like French made the world their oyster. We first considered moving to the Carribean for our French odyssey but we are not very good at heat or mosquitos. Little did we know France still had plenty of both.
The first was while we stayed in the small village of Issigeac and a local store owner flat-out refused to sell to me because I didn’t speak French. Helpfully I didn’t understand any of the insults she said to because at the time I truly didn’t speak French. The second was last winter during my daughter’s classe de neige when I tried to convey to the ski program director how nice it was that French children get this opportunity. After stumbling through some very bad French I quickly complimented her program in a mix of French English. She replied, with a hand up towards my face, “Pfff. I do not speak English,” and avoided me for the rest of the week.