| Series Title | The Economist |
|---|---|
| Series Details | No.8476, 6.5.06 |
| Publication Date | 06/05/2006 |
| ISSN | 0013-0613 |
| Content Type | Journal | Series | Blog, News |
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Date: 06/05/06 A shift towards more selective immigration "IF CERTAIN people don't like France, they shouldn't hesitate to leave." With this echo of a notorious National Front slogan, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, transformed the immigration bill that he put before parliament this week into an exercise in populism. But behind the rhetoric is a sensible change, towards a managed, high-skilled, demand-led immigration policy. Until the mid-1970s, most immigrants to France came to work. Since the law was tightened in 1974, the inflows have changed. Today, only 7,000 permanent workers arrive a year, down from over 170,000 in the late-1960s. Three-quarters of legal entrants to France are family-related: spouses, children and sometimes extended families of those already in the country. France has a low proportion of skilled immigrants. Mr Sarkozy's bill aims to reverse this trend, by introducing selective immigration. There will be yearly targets for three categories of incomers: workers, students and families. Skilled migrants will be encouraged through a new three-year "talent" work permit. The bill includes measures to encourage foreign students. But it also requires newcomers to take lessons in the French language and civic education; it seeks to control family-related immigration, by clamping down on bogus marriages, and tightening up the rules to ensure that those bringing in a family have the means to pay for them; and it cracks down on illegal immigration by scrapping the automatic right to stay, granted after ten years in France illegally, and stepping up deportations. Opposition to the bill is fierce. The Socialist Party accuses Mr Sarkozy of shamelessly trying to seduce the far-right vote, thereby putting principles of generosity and tolerance in peril. The Council of Christian Churches in France has written to Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, to express concern at the law's harshness. Mr Sarkozy is unapologetic about linking France's social troubles, including last autumn's suburban riots, to immigration and the difficulty of integrating second-generation children. To accusations of mean-mindedness, he replies: "It is not a mark of generosity to create ghettos at the gates of our big towns, where there is only hopelessness and, beyond that, crime." He argues that, under the pretext of protecting jobs at home, France has created a system that lets in only those who have neither a job nor any useful skills. In many ways, Mr Sarkozy is simply following the practice of other countries, notably Australia, Canada and Switzerland, as well as Britain and the Netherlands. In each case, the policy is based on a recognition that there is no such thing as zero immigration, and that a managed, skills-based immigration policy will not only control inflows but also bring benefits to host countries. As Mr Sarkozy, who is of Hungarian origin and recognises "what an open France gave my family", told parliament this week, a policy based only on blood ties would be "synonymous with national decline". France moves to a managed, high-skilled, demand-led immigration policy. |
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| Countries / Regions | France |
