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Supply And Demand
While the US debates a tougher line on illegal immigration across its southern border and Britain wonders how Home Office incompetence allowed hundreds of criminal immigrants loose on its streets, France too has addressed the immigration issue, with a new law aimed at regulating the supply of newcomers to the demand for their skills.
Yesterday, French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy's controversial new immigration bill was passed through parliament with overwhelming support. The bill, which introduces a version of selective immigration into the Republican system for the first time, passed with 367 vs 164 votes in the National Assembly - a better result than Sarko's rival, Dominique de Villepin won in the no-confidence bill opponents raised against him earlier in the week.
The new bill brings in yearly targets for three categories of incomers: workers, students and families. If you come equipped with a degree in computer technology, you might just might get to the top of the queue - though some might wonder why dynamic Africans with these skills would want to move to France, when pay and opportunities are better in Britain.
Sarkozy and his supporters argue that the bill merely puts France's system on a par with that of New Zealand, Australia and Canada, where points systems exist to ensure immigrants with in-demand skills are given priority. "France needs to choose the immigrants it needs," Sarkozy said. Also under the new law, immigrants will only be allowed into France to work, not to live off welfare and benefits, and their spouses will not be guaranteed automatic entry into France.
The bill also requires newcomers to take lessons in the French language and sign a contract respecting France's 'civic education'.
Sarkozy's law is designed to address several of France's most pressing domestic issues. Cynics argue that Sarkozy is merely implementing laws that the anti-immigrant National Front has been pushing for years in an attempt to secure far-right votes before next year's presidential election, where the Front's leader Jean-Marie Le Pen is expected to do well. It also comes as a response to last autumn's riots, where the trouble-makers, mainly the sons of immigrant families, made war zones of France's housing estates. Additionally, overcrowding in slum buildings occupied by out-of-work immigrant families was blamed for several fires which last year killed over 60 people.
Despite the law's relatively easy passage through parliament, Sarkozy's critics have been loudly represented in the media. One Socialist MP described the law as "a pillage" of the skills and brainpower of African countries. It is not clear if the MP was advocating that skilled immigrants should stay at home while those without skills or prospects should be cared for by France. Anti-racist groups claim that the law "kills every right and liberty of French immigrants", adding that "it is very dangerous for the country."
Last weekend, protestors organised a march in Paris against what they called "disposable immigration." The protests against labour reform which gripped France in April also used the argument that new labour laws would create a "disposable generation" of workers who could be got rid of easily once they reached the end of their usefulness. However, the anti-Sarkozy protests haven't enjoyed so much public support.
Opposition to France's new law comes from overseas as well, particularly in Africa, which is the main source of France's immigrant population. Senegal's president Abdoulaye Wade attacked the law, while Sarkozy's visit to Mali was marred by a protest march on the French embassy. Marchers accused Sarko of "Neo-Nazism" while Malian MPs described the official visit as a "provocation" because the minister has been responsible for deporting hundreds of illegal immigrants back to Mali. The BBC quotes sources who claim that planes carrying up to 70 deported illegals every day arrive back in Mali courtesy of the interior minister - indeed, your EURSOC correspondent has several times spotted police buses packed with Africans en route for deportation at airports around Paris.
One of the most prominent deported illegals of recent years was a 22 year old rioter booted back to Mali after his arrest during November's riots.
Sarko's welcome comes as a contrast to president Jacques Chirac's visit to Algeria two years ago. Chirac had been shaken after a France-Algeria football match, when thousands of young French muslims booed La Marseillaise. High on the success of his anti-Iraq war rhetoric, he visited the north African state in March 2003, and was greeted by crowds chanting "more visas, more visas."
