Thread: France: Conservative Candidate: Hold Back Illegals

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/ ... y_id=14166

French conservative candidate Sarkozy: Trying to hold back illegal immigrants

Here's one way, possibly, to discourage would-be immigrants from heading to France: Make it harder for newcomers, once established on French soil, to bring in other family members after them.

That's the proposal conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy (currently France's interior minister) has just put forth while out on the campaign trail. French voters will go to the polls next month; current opinion surveys indicate that he would beat Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal in a second-round run-off. Both Sarkozy and soon-to-be-gone President Jacques Chirac represent the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), a generally conservative, center-right party.

(photo) French Interior Minister and presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy in Marseilles, inspecting immigration-control operations - and campaigning at the same time

Sarkozy used the occasion of a visit to the Old Port of Marseilles, after a regional meeting in that city this past weekend on the illegal-immigration theme, to express his commitment to upholding - and toughening - immigration-control laws.

While inspecting government operations in Marseilles, one of France's and the Mediterranean's major ports, for combating illegal immigration, Sarkozy called attention to "the probable arrival, in the spring, of illegal immigrants coming from Africa" to southern France. He also trumpeted the successful implementation of legislation he had backed a few years ago, which, he said, had led to "82,000 undocumented aliens [having] been sent back to their countries of origin since 2002." (Le Figaro)

Notes journalist Don Murray of Canada's CBC News: "There are anywhere from 200,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants in the country. In the spring of 2006, Sarkozy encouraged them to apply to 'regularize' their situation. More than 33,000 did just that. Then the minister announced that only 7000 would be legalized. The others risked deportation."

Scoffing at "the absurd system that serves as immigration policy in our country," Sarkozy insisted that a more effective policy to fight illegal immigration is a "subject that counts, because a country's immigration strategy - it's that country's identity in 30 years." If the UMP candidate is sounding off so strongly on the illegal-immigration theme, it may well be because far-right presidential hopeful Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front party, who has long made it more of a racism-tinged centerpiece of his political platform, has accused Sarkozy of not having done enough to stop illegals from entering France. (Le Figaro)

(photo) Immigrants in France, in a photo from last December: Sarkozy is proposing a new rule that would make it harder for additional family members to follow a newcomer unless they can speak French

At the regional conference in Marseilles, Sarkozy urged French lawmakers to take a cue from the Netherlands and Germany: the Dutch already require any additional family members who wish to follow a first, legally arrived immigrant into their country to learn and demonstrate proficiency in their language. Germany is thinking about imposing a similar regulation.

Sarkozy proposed that French consulates in other countries could administer language tests to would-be immigrants so that they could "demonstrate their knowledge" of French before being permitted to pursue legal-immigration application procedures. "Integration [of immigrants into French society], in order to be successful, has to be prepared for in advance," Sarkozy said. By arriving equipped with appropriate language skills, he argued, family members who would like to follow a first, legally admitted immigrant-relative into France will be better prepared to adopt "our institutions and our values." (Le Monde; also, Les Échos)

Posted By: Edward M. Gomez (Email) | March 07 2007 at 12:00 AM

If anybody wants to send today's headlines.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article. ... y_id=36612

Dutch to help police southern EU borders
16 February 2007

AMSTERDAM – The Netherlands is considering contributing manpower to the new EU border control agency, Frontex. It is also offering equipment for the coast guard.


http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/ ... 80002.html
Russia Moves to Limit Migrant Workers
(photo) Azerbaijani Eldar Khuseinov shows pineapples on sale at a market in Moscow

By April, the Russian government hopes to reduce the number of illegal workers in the country by nearly 50 percent. The majority of such workers toil at low-wage market jobs shunned by ordinary Russians. Others are involved in the sale of counterfeit alcohol and medicine. VOA's Lisa McAdams in Moscow takes a look at the government's new plans to stem the tide of illegal immigrants.


http://english.people.com.cn/200703/08/ ... 55662.html
China calls for int'l cooperation to combat illegal immigration

China on Thursday called for international cooperation to fight against such criminal activities as trafficking in human beings and illegal immigration.


http://news.monstersandcritics.com/euro ... grant_laws

Germany toughens immigrant laws

By Stefan Nicola Mar 7, 2007, 20:40 GMT

BERLIN, Germany (UPI) -- Germany`s top security chief stepped up calls to reform the country`s immigration laws to counter terrorist threats, and fight forced marriages as well as illegal immigration.


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/ ... y_id=14166

French conservative candidate Sarkozy: Trying to hold back illegal immigrants

Here's one way, possibly, to discourage would-be immigrants from heading to France: Make it harder for newcomers, once established on French soil, to bring in other family members after them.

Looks like it's a worldwide probelm. Between all the fences going up around the world and all the deportations all over the world, we are not alone.

We should'nt have to put up with it either.


Thanks for the posts Loservillelabor. I just emailed a letter with your articles to my Reps.