Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Immigration’ Category

It’s time for the fields to be sprayed locally with fungicide and, as usual, we’ve all coughing and have sore throats even though we’re quite a bit away from where the spraying is being done at the moment.

Naturally, the concentration of the spray is a good deal higher around those doing the spraying but, of course, they’re wearing masks, aren’t they? Well, since it is France, no, they aren’t wearing any masks or other protective gear. This photo shows that there’s a mild breeze blowing which is great when the guy is driving the direction in this photo. I have a photo of him driving in the other direction but you can’t see the tractor in it as it’s totally enshrouded in the cloud from the spray.

Incidently,  in case you were wonder, yes, the packaging that the spray comes in is marked with untold numbers of warnings about the necessity of wearing protective gear when using it. Not that you really need to be told that working in a cloud of fungicide is not a good idea.

This total disregard for health & safety is typical for the area. Granted, the guy doing the spraying is making his own decision to ignore the warnings as it’s his field but even in the supermarkets you constantly come across wet and slippy floors that are ignored by the staff. In the UK, they have 2 minutes to clear any spillage or they’re legally liable, here it seems like hours are fine (and, yes, we have been in a supermarket a few hours where a spillage we saw on the way in was still there as we went out).

You might think that medical treatment in France would be pretty much the same as it is elsewhere in the world once you get to the point of visiting the doctor, but it isn’t.

DIY is one of the most popular activities in France if the constant flow of traffic into the DIY (bricolage) shops is anything to go by.

One reason for this is that it’s next to impossible to get anyone to do odd-jobs here so many more people are forced down the DIY route than would otherwise be the case. The range of items for sale is much larger than that in the equivalent places in the UK. Electical equipment runs right up to professional gear in the larger stores and you can buy everything required to build a house from scratch which is also a fairly popular activity. I well remember one old couple wheeling out everything that they needed to floor a room in their house from the floorboards to the tools required.

The popularity of the activity is most noticeable just prior to public holidays when it’s best to avoid these places unless you’ve a considerable amount of time to spare as the queues are just unbelieveable.

Naturally, whilst it might be a popular activity, that doesn’t mean that the work is necessarily done terribly well. Not that the workmanship of the professionals is always better of course as you can see from the not quite perfect sign from this DIY store.

At first glance, the shopping district in Perpignan seems to be quite small and compact. It’s mostly a pedestrian area and even those areas where it isn’t, the streets are narrow enough to really slow down both the speed and the volume of the traffic considerably so it ends up with a very calm feel to it.

After a while though, you realise that there are a whole lot more shops than you first saw because many are set back from the street in little courtyards like the one you can see here. In fact, we’ve only really started to discover the true size of the shopping area recently as many of these little courtyards contain not one but often four or five of the little shops.

They’re all different too. This one is relatively ordinary in that it’s effectively just got a longer than normal entrance hall but others come with statues, waterfalls, and the like. The range of shops is much greater than those directly on the main street where you’ll generally find the international shop brands. It’s in these little courtyards that you find the more unique shops.

Of course, the biggest plus point of this arrangement is that in the Summer, the courtyards are a good deal cooler than the street. Airconditioning isn’t that widespread here at the moment so these little courtyard shops and restaurants provide a welcome break from the intense July and August heat.

Anyway, if you’re here on a visit, keep an eye out for them and explore some of the courtyard shops of Perpignan.

One wonders whether that title will attract the attention of the French authorities but it probably won’t.

We’ve been living here for over three years now with no residence permit (Carte de Séjour) for Wendy and now pretty much accept that she’ll almost certainly never get one. Now, in every other country that would be something of a problem in that Wendy would be deported indeed she would already have been deported. Not in France though.

How come we can do that?

Well, what we did was apply for her Carte de Séjour within 90 days of us arriving here. Actually, we applied for the European version of that ie the Carte de Séjour Europeenne but that wouldn’t really have mattered as it turns out.

The CdS is something of an unusual beast in that the only documents that the authorities are legally allowed to ask for are a passport and a proof of relationship. This being France, they actually asked for around 30 separate documents which we refused to provide and there things stopped. We received no further contact from the Prefecture (who are responsible for issuing it) but did enquire a few times and they said they were awaiting for documentation from us (ie the documents that we had refused to supply).

About a year later, we thought we’d have another go. Different staff this time, and we managed to get somewhat further, eventually ending up with a letter from OMI (the immigration department) asking for EUR 220. As noted above the only things that they can legally ask for are a passport and proof of relationship, there’s no mention of money in the European law because they’re not allowed to ask for any. So, I sent off a letter pointing this out. No response.

Late last year, we made a start yet again. Turns out that they had lost the file (although, funnily enough, they seemed able to refer to some information that it contained!). Anyway, different staff again and we were assured that the permit was on its way. The temporary permit arrived in due course and, as it’s about to expire, we enquired. That in turn triggered off the letter from OMI with a bill this time of EUR 275 so I must dig out my own letter again.

So, if you fancy being an illegal alien in France, it’s really very easy. Once you get here, apply for your Carte de Séjour but leave out a few documents that they’re asking for. This totally throws the system apparently as we were told several times that our file had been put to the one side awaiting the documents which, of course, were never going to arrive. Eventually, your file is put away and nobody is ever likely to follow up on it after that happens.

This relies on one aspect that seems innately French: they obey authority and said authority assumes that it will be obeyed ie if they demand some document, then obviously it will arrive. Step outside that framework and it totally throws the system.

So, if you fancy being an illegal immigrant in Europe, don’t bother with the UK as they’ll deport you for sure. Head for France, apply for your Carte de Séjour but omit at least one document asked for and then just settle into life here.