An electoral promise of Nicolas Sarkozy, the creation of a ministry in charge of Immigration and "National Identity" has introduced in our country a risk of identity confinement and exclusion whose profound gravity is measured every day for two and a half years. Very officially, words have been introduced on the public scene, which designate and stigmatize the foreigner – and by extension, anyone who looks foreign. Refugees and migrants, especially from the Mediterranean and Africa, and their descendants, are separated from a national "us" not only imaginary since its borders are redrawn on material, administrative, and ideological plans.

What has this ministry given birth to? New objectives for the expulsion of foreigners (27,000 per year), raids on undocumented immigrants, the detention of children in detention centers, the crime of solidarity, the expulsion of exiles to certain war-torn countries in disregard of the right of asylum, the multiplication of identity checks based on appearance, and finally, naturalization on a case-by-case basis, prefecture by prefecture, which breaks with the principle of equality...

In this fissure of the Republic, our leaders have rushed in. Through inadmissible remarks in a democracy, trivialized and now daily, they legitimize all behaviors and words of rejection, violence, and withdrawal. We are not here facing individual "slips". In reality, these remarks are the logical consequence of a policy that the government wishes to amplify further under the guise of a "debate" on national identity. We are thus called to become co-authors and co-responsible for the identity control over France.

The ministerial circular sent to the prefectures to frame the debate raises a question: "Why does the question of national identity generate discomfort among some intellectuals, sociologists, or historians?" The answer is simple. We cannot accept that the inquisitive gaze of an identity power can hover, authorizing itself from us, over the life and gestures of each one.

That is why it is time today to publicly reaffirm, against this nationalist hijacking of the idea of nation, the universalist ideals that are the foundation of our Republic.

We therefore call on the inhabitants, associations, parties, and candidates for future elections to demand with us the abolition of this "Ministry of National Identity and Immigration", as it endangers democracy.

The first signatories:
Michel Agier (anthropologist, EHESS and IRD), Etienne Balibar (philosopher, University Paris-X and University of California), Marie-Claude Blanc-Chaléard (historian, University Paris-X), Luc Boltanski (sociologist, EHESS), Marcel Detienne (historian, EPHE and Johns Hopkins University), Eric Fassin (sociologist, ENS), Michel Feher (philosopher, Paris), Françoise Héritier (anthropologist, Collège de France), Daniel Kunth (astrophysicist, CNRS), Laurent Mucchielli (sociologist, CNRS), Pap Ndiaye (historian, EHESS), Gérard Noiriel (historian, EHESS), Mathieu Potte-Bonneville (philosopher, International College of Philosophy), Richard Rechtman (psychiatrist, Institut Marcel Rivière, CHS la Verrière), Serge Slama (jurist, University of Evry), Emmanuel Terray (anthropologist, EHESS), Tzvetan Todorov (historian, CNRS), Paul Virilio (urbanist, Ecole spéciale d'architecture de Paris), Sophie Wahnich (historian, CNRS) and Patrick Weil (historian, CNRS)

The first signatory organizations:
- associations: Logistics: Billing software Switzerland, Amoureux au ban public, This France Association, Association for the Recognition of the Rights of Homosexual and Transsexual Persons to Immigration and Stay (ARDHIS), National Association of Communist and Republican Elected Officials (ANECR), Science Technology Society Association (ASTS), ATTAC, Lawyers for the Defense of Foreigners' Rights, CIMADE, Vigilance Committee on the Uses of History (CVUH), Medical Committee for Exiles (COMEDE), Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN), Welcome and Solidarity Group (GAS), Information and Support Group for Immigrants (GISTI), La Bande Passante (LBP), Human Rights League (LDH), Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples (MRAP), Education Without Borders Network (RESF), SOS Racism
- unions: Federation of Education, Research and Culture CGT (FERC-CGT), Unitary Trade Union Federation (FSU), SNES-FSU, Sud Education, National Union CGT-Educ'action, Solidaires Union
- parties: Democratic Movement (MoDem), New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), Communist Party (PC), Left Party (PG), Radical Left Party (PRG), Socialist Party (PS), Greens

Download the call in PDF format