Want immigration reform? Go to France!
The French Assembly has approved some tough new immigration restrictions. The Washington Time reports:
The bill, which still needs Senate approval and a second vote in the Assembly, requires would-be immigrants for the first time to demonstrate a knowledge of the French language and cultural values.
Of course, faking French fluency and values is easier than faking a Social Security number. All you have to do is say something like: Zut-alors! La mort aux Américains! Je voudrais dormir avec votre épouse! (rim shot)
OK, OK, my apologies to all our French readers for that one. Couldn't resist. But then, the French deserve a little mocking today, if for no other reason than certain other elements of their immigration bill:
Its most controversial clauses provide for voluntary DNA testing of applicants seeking to show they are related to current French residents, and legalize some data gathering based on race and ethnicity.
Why that doesn't sound French, it sounds ... German.
Comments
France is the new Germany.
Posted by: mariel | September 21, 2007 3:19 PM
Perhaps France is the new Germany. Nevertheless, considering the Babylonian mess of our immigration system, we should not be so eager to judge (or poke fun at) France for what that country is doing to stem legal or illegal immigration. The problem with France is that France went to Africa to take Algier and part of Morocco, and later, to show to the world how civilized France was, it gave their inhabitants French citizenship. Around 1962 those new French citizens started leaving Africa and moved to France. They had the legal right to do it and France is paying now for what she did way back then. USA did not invade Mexico, so what legal rights do Mexicans think they have by coming here illegally? And now, claiming rights of "sanctuary" they are moving into Canada. History is repeating itself and people never learn.
Posted by: Dante f. Rochetti | September 22, 2007 8:32 AM
Germany is the new America, more like it. Which is why they have so many terror cells from Hamburg to Bitburg. They have bent over so far backwards to overcome their shameful involvement in the Holocaust, that they are one of the main European havens for immigrants, especially Muslims, besides Britain and, previously, Holland. (But even that very liberal country has been having backlashes, most visibly since the murder of filmmaker Van Gogh, but really for two decades since I've been visiting there.)
France has never admitted its guilt for the Vichy government's role, and has no shame in declaring its culture and language to be at risk and superior, worth defending, so it dares go where no guilt-ridden or multicultural society will.
Besides, with Sarkozy being the son of assimilated immigrants, and having more assimilating immigrants (including a Muslim woman) in his cabinet than anyone before, he has the immigrant's pluck of "If we did it, they can, too."
If you want to see a really bizarre sight, go to the Riviera where the women are topless, and a Muslim family with the veiled wife walks on, apparently not having been told about the nature of it. The men's eyes popping out, and they quickly all abscond in horror. Just a visual of how discordant the two cultures are, compared to our conservative America.
Posted by: jill | September 23, 2007 10:36 PM