'French law will change, not curb, immigration'

A tough new immigration law might not cut the numbers of migrants coming to France but should spark an influx of qualified workers better able to integrate into French society, a government agency said.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy tightened immigration laws after youths in France's poor suburbs - many of them descendants of African immigrants - torched thousands of cars in three weeks of rioting a year ago.

The violence prompted a wave of soul-searching about France's failure to make second-generation immigrants feel they belong in the country of their birth, and polarised the debate about long-term immigration policies.

Mr Sarkozy's law, passed amid protests at home and in former French colonies in West Africa from where many immigrants come, makes it easier for qualified workers to come to France while excluding those with few skills.

"The aim is to have an immigration adapted to labour (market) needs, causing fewer inequalities," said Patrick Butor, head of the Bureau for Population and Migrations (DPM) which advises ministries on immigration and integration policies.

"Work is the main way to integrate people. If we raise job-motivated immigration, we should have better integration," he said, adding he was not sure overall immigration numbers would fall due to the new law.

"But we will have a different composition, with a fall in immigrants coming here for family reasons and a rise in those coming for work," he said.

In 2004, France took in 140,000 legal immigrants, compared to 80,000 in 1999, with large increases in immigrants coming from Africa and Eastern Europe, the most recent data shows.

Around three quarters of immigrants came for family reasons and only five per cent just for work, Mr Butor said, adding the latter group could double in size over the next few years.

Mr Sarkozy's law makes it harder for resident immigrants to bring their families to France, obliges newcomers to take language and civics lessons, and introduces a three-year "skills and talents" residence permit to attract skilled workers.

Mr Butor said some 10,000 foreigners and their family members could come to France under the "talent card" every year.

The plight of the estimated 4.9 million immigrants in France came under the spotlight with last year's riots, which exposed the conditions in poor, high-rise suburbs where unemployment can be four times the national average.

Critics said Mr Sarkozy was picking on a soft target and that immigrants already living on the edge of mainstream society would be further marginalised by his law. Poverty, not uncontrolled immigration, had fuelled the unrest which could resume unless life in the suburbs improved, they argued.

Mr Sarkozy has drawn fire for his drive to expel many of the estimated 200,000 to 400,000 foreigners illegally living in France. Some 20,000 were expelled last year.