What type of family?

Third country nationals family reunification policies in France, Italy and Spain must play down on “material constraints” and “requirement-thresholds” and focus more on “the path to follow”. This is what emerged from a survey carried out in Italy titled “Migration as a family event” and released by the publisher “Vite e Pensiero” of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan- Italy). A growing phenomenon. The survey points out how third world country nationals’ right to family reunification “in Italy, France and Spain” is a “high ranking obligation” but “subject to complex balancing systems”. On the whole, Western Europe governments do not oppose to this right, ” and in some way support it”, nonetheless the path is “full of obstacles”. In the three countries surveyed “reunification” migration is constantly growing. Reunification permits more than doubled in Italy from approximately 40 thousand in 2000 to more than 80 thousand in 2004, in Spain from 34 thousand in 2003 to almost 100 thousand in 2006, whereas France accounted for 20 thousand in 1995 compared to 45 thousand in 2005. The numbers however dropped in the Netherlands and Demark.What type of family? Despite EU still lacks a common immigration policy, the directive 2003/86 on family reunification is binding for all Member States, unless the study notes, “the power of autonomous decision is cancelled”. Entry through family reunification is everywhere a “specific immigration channel”, completely different from that of work motivations, but whose access has to abide to different constraints. One of the most delicate ones is the “definition of family”. Is it based on marriage bonds or does it include a “de facto” family? A nuclear family or an enlarged one? Monogamy or polygamy? The survey points out that the above mention directive 2003/86 “refers to a nuclear family”, composed by the spouse and minor children; as for the other relatives “specific conditions are necessary: needy people for whom the immigrant is the main caregiver”. The Italian law (Single text on Immigration) follows that of the EU, whereas the Spanish “Ley organica sobre derechos y libertades de los extranjeros” is slightly more restrictive”. The French “Code de l’entrée et du sejour des etrangers” follows a more limitative immigration policy compared to Spain and Italy” and “envisages only nuclear family reunification”. All three legislations exclusively “refer to the spouse” and not non-married spouse. “Firmly against polygamy” the directive “bans the Member States from including more than one wife in the family reunification”; the legislation of the three countries surveyed are in line with it. A “denial” which “doesn’t respond to restrictive immigration issues” but rather favours “the identity of the family based on the married couple” in line with the “principles of the European culture” and common to all national legal systems, “on equal opportunity between man and woman”.A path in need for support. Further requirement are needed for the family reunification entry and residence permit. In France the immigrant eligible for family reunification must have stayed in the country for at least 18-month; 12 month in Spain (like in Germany and the Netherlands) whereas Italy doesn’t foresee any specific time frame. The family reunification applicant in France must abide to principes essentiales that rule this country’s vie familiare , and set a minimum income. In Italy the minimum income is measured on the annual amount of the social allocation, while Spain ” sufficient economic means to provide for family needs” As for housing, France requires at least 22-28 square meters; the Italian law establishes housing “must be in compliance with parameters set by regional laws”; the Spanish law is more generic. In France the family reunification applicant must also pass a test on the “values of the French Republic” and its language; if the requester doesn’t pass the test the authorities organize in the requester’s Country of origin a training course, a similar procedure is followed in the Netherlands and Austria. According to the survey the family reunification policy framework needs to be re-designed because integration cannot be considered as a sudden leap but as a path which needs to be supported right from the beginning of the entry application request until the final citizenship”.