Vol. 76/No. 8      February 27, 2012

With official unemployment here at 9.9 percent, government of President Nicolas Sarkozy has stepped up attacks on immigrants. Tunisian and Libyan refugees, gypsies, and immigrants from Romania and the Comoros Islands have all been targets for police roundups over the last year.

According to the national statistics agency, there were some 3.7 million immigrants living in France in 2008, about 5.7 percent of the population. Over the last year the government reduced the number of residency permits it approves. Reuters reports that it also cut work visas by 26 percent.

The government is also making it more difficult for immigrants to gain French citizenship, the news agency notes, and will require applicants “to sign a new charter pledging to uphold the country’s values.”

In January Guéant claimed that an increase in burglaries was caused by “criminals coming from abroad.” He specifically accused Romanians, gypsies and Comorians as being responsible and proposed a new law that would automatically expel from France all immigrants convicted of certain categories of crimes.

“Not all civilizations have the same worth,” Guéant told the right-wing student organization Uni Feb. 4, calling the National Assembly’s July 2010 vote to ban the Islamic veil “an act of civilization.”
 
 
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