Is it true that “5 million immigrants will have entered France” at the end of Emmanuel Macron’s mandate, as Pascal Praud asserts? – Liberation

On CNews, the columnist for “Heure des pros” puts forward the figure of 500,000 immigrant arrivals each year. But the accumulation that he operates makes no sense.

Question asked by Claude, April 26

“Emmanuel Macron’s record is frightening,” deplores Pascal Praud Wednesday April 24 on the set of Pro Hour, show that he hosts on CNews. Palm open wide, making the five hand sign, the chronicler affirms that at “at the end of Macron’s five-year term, of Macron’s ten years, you will have 5 million immigrants who will have entered French soil.” Later in the sequence, he forces the point a little more, moving from the future to the present: “You have 5 million people who came in.”

Pascal Praud is only repeating a figure now well established in the public debate, according to which 500,000 immigrants enter France each year. By multiplying it by the ten years which will have been spent under the mandate of Emmanuel Macron, it thus arrives at 5 million entries. At the cost of much confusion.

Not necessarily a physical entry into the territory

Where does the figure of 500,000 regular entries each year come from? For years, right-wing or far-right elected officials have gotten into the (bad) habit of estimating the number of annual immigrant entries by adding up the residence permits granted and asylum applications.

If we take the latest immigration figures in 2023, which were published in January, we see 323&