Thread: Paris's illegal immigrants fight to live openly

Paris's illegal immigrants fight to live openly
Illegal immigrants seeking legal residency in France demonstrate at a government building they have occupied in central Paris. Pierre Verdy/AFP AFP
Hundreds of people in France's biggest squat wage a vocal campaign for legal residency

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Article Comments (49) Susan Sachs


Published on Monday, Dec. 07, 2009 8:47PM EST

Last updated on Tuesday, Dec. 08, 2009 2:23AM EST


Dieneba Ninae is hiding in plain sight, like the hundreds of other undocumented immigrants who have taken over a four-storey government office building in the centre of Paris.

The 50-year-old Mauritanian woman lives like a refugee. She has two bulging plastic sacks of clothes, a space heater, some blankets and a mattress on the floor of a room she shares with seven people, including a baby who cries through the night.

“We just want to be regularized,â€

They prepare meals in a communal kitchen, share supplies donated by charities, organize themselves into cleaning squads and troop out regularly to street demonstrations to demand legal-resident status.

So that is their aim, rather than becoming part of a society that has put up with these squatters, while our illegals are only here to work hard.

France is one of the few European countries that systematically gives legal residency to undocumented migrants, provided they can prove they have lived and worked in the country for at least five years and have put down roots.

Yet this is what happens? Hows that old saying go? Oh Yeah: "Give em an inch and they'll take and take and take!