InfoMigrants wants to remind readers that obtaining refugee status has nothing to do with the government’s immigration policy. In France, it’s an independent body, Ofpra [the French Office of Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons or l’Office français de protection pour les réfugiés et apatrides], that is in charge of making decisions on asylum claims.

During an interview this summer, the French Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, stirred controversy when he said that refugees should be welcomed while economic migrants should be deported.

Since then, many NGOs have denounced this way of thinking, which they say creates an artificial distinction between "good" and "bad" migrants.

InfoMigrants is going beyond the political debate to investigate and outline French asylum law.

A refugee is not only someone who fled war

According to the 1951 Geneva Convention, a refugee is defined as a person who is "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."

The definition does not limit the term "refugee" to people fleeing conflict. Refugee status can also be granted to, for example, a gay person who fled Chechnya after being persecuted for his or her sexual orientation. In another example, in 2017, about 500 Albanians were given international protection (refugee status) because they were being persecuted in their country-- even though Albania is considered to be a "safe country" by Ofpra.

Refugee status cannot be refused to people who chose to migrate "for other reasons, especially economic." Anyone who wants to claim asylum in France has the right to a meeting with Ofpra.

"In order to get asylum, you have to establish that the person is facing credible threats, whether it be because of their religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation or ethnic identity," said Pascal Brice, the director of Ofpra. "No nationality is outright refused audience."

Historian and demographer Hervé le Bras also scoffed at the line drawn between "political refugees" and "economic migrants" in an interview this week on Arte's 28 Minutes show.

"Each case is unique," he said. "For a long time, we’ve known that the categories that we use to classify migrants don’t make sense. Migrants often belong to two or three categories at once [for example, they might be fleeing a repressive regime, a family conflict and poverty, all at once]."

>> Read on InfoMigrants: How to apply for asylum in France? 

Are all migrants at risk of being deported?

It is not possible for the French government to deport any migrant they want. The only people who they can deport are those who have been refused asylum (those who were not able to get refugee status even after appealing to the National Court of the Right to Asylum-- known in France as the Cour national du droit d’asile, or CNDA). These people are given a notice to leave French territory (known in France as an OQTF, short for "obligation de quitter le territoire français").

It is important to distinguish between an undocumented migrant who has not yet applied for status in France and a migrant who has been ordered to leave the country after being refused asylum.

It’s not the government that decides who is eligible for asylum

The French government has made statements in the past-- about putting migrants in emergency shelters, for example-- that seem to imply that the government might have discretionary power in terms of asylum. However, this is not the case. It is not up to a minister or any other government entity to decide whether or not a person deserves international protection. Instead, that decision is up to Ofpra, an independent institution.

>> Read on InfoMigrants: What happens during an Ofpra interview in France?