Speech #1090134982

That is a little bit much. I think. but I dont think there is anything wrong with a nation that is proud of its language and wanting to preserve it. So this French bill could make it easier for the country to screen out poorly educated immigrants in favor of highly skilled workers. It would tighten restrictions under which immigrant workers can bring their families to France. That is chain migration. You get to bring your family no matter what skills they bring to the Nation. It would abolish the right of illegal immigrants to receive residency papers after living in France for 2 years. So in a way. it abolishes amnesty. It abolishes the right of illegal immigrants to receive residency papers. even after they have lived in the country for 10 years. The bill passed by 367 to 164 and will be debated in the French Senate next month. An article I happened to catch on the airplane the other day in the Economist. a Londonbased newspaper. said Americans are nativists. not internationalists. Why dont we talk about some of these EU countries that are supposed to be so progressive? This is what the Economist wrote on May 6 describing the background of Frances immigration policy and the reason for their legislation: Until the midseventies. immigrants to France came to work. Since the law was tightened in 1974. the inflows have changed. Today. only 7.000 permanent workers arrive each year. down from over 107.000 in the late sixties. Threequarters of legal immigrants to France are family related. Not skill related. family related. France has a low proportion of skilled immigrants. Frances Interior Minister. Nicolas Sarkozy. 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." How about that? The Economist article goes on to describe an immigration bill that Mr. Sarkozy has put before the French Parliament this week. which addresses that very problem. Mr.