Immigration: New French Legislation
Since the debate over immigration (or, I should say, the debate over illegal immigration) is still hot, I've been curious about immigration policy/debate/problems in other countries also.
Here's some new news from France, which has passed new immigration legislation drafted by Sarkozy.
But wait, there's more!
The bill makes it harder for unskilled migrants to settle in France and abolishes the rights of illegal immigrants to remain after 10 years. . . . The proposed law also requires immigrants from outside the European Union to sign a contract agreeing to learn French and to respect the principles of the French Republic, and makes it more difficult for them to bring their families over to join them. Mr Sarkozy has argued that riots by youths in immigrant suburbs across France last November showed the system of immigration and integration was failing. |
Well, well, well. Opponents of this are using the same tired old attacks. I quote the BBC story: "Critics say it is racist and accuse Mr Sarkozy of pandering to the far-right. " This basically sounds like the same thing some people keep saying here in the States about people who don't want our current chaos of massive illegal immigration to continue.
In an interesting twist, Sarko himself is the son of a Hungarian immigrant. In fact, in the immigration debate here at home, the opinions of legal immigrants and their descendants are rarely heard (or respected). To understand all the sides of the debate, you may want to see what these folks think too.