The Immigration Debate (en francais)

The BBC reports tonight that both houses of the French parliament have passed a "tough new immigration bill." So, after the riots of the last few months and the growing realization of the very real potential for the Islamification of Europe, have the French given up on multiculturalism and embraced xenophobic nationalism? Take a look at the BBC's summary of the bill's major provisions and judge for yourself:

--Only the qualified get "skills and talents" residency permit
--Foreigners only allowed in to work, not live off benefits
--Foreign spouses to wait longer for residence cards
--Migrants must agree to learn French
--Migrants must sign 'contract' respecting French way of life
--Scraps law on workers [BBC speak for illegal immigrants] getting citizenship after 10 years

The first two and the last entries are so unobjectionable and reasonable they almost appear as if they were included just to demonstrate the absurdity of the bill's critics, who have predictably labeled the bill "racist" and have accused French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy of "pandering to the far right". As for making immigrants learn French and requiring them to sign a "contract" "respecting the French way of life," Americans can identify with the sentiment -- encouraging immigrants to learn the language of their new country and assimilate to its ways and culture -- but only the French would make these steps mandatory. It's a symbolic gesture at best; can anyone seriously imagine that France will deport someone because he can't determine whether to use "tu" or "vous"? Or worse, for "disrespecting" the French way of life? I wonder if burning cars counts. Assimilation and language adoption are critical steps for an immigrant looking to put down roots in a new land, but they are hardly the kind of thing to mandate by law. An official policy of encouragement through limiting government publications to the national language, ending "bilingual education" programs, and using the state's educational system to build up, rather than tear down, the nation's heritage and traditions makes good sense, would be much more effective than these blunt legal requirements without curbing liberty to such an extraordinary degree.

Remarkably, I'm beginning to admire the reasonableness and thoughtfulness of our own nation's immigration policy debate.