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2/10/06

Xinhua - France adopts bill on "chosen" immigration

Xinhua

France adopts bill on "chosen" immigration

PARIS, Feb. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The French government adopted Thursday a bill favoring highly skilled foreigners in a bid to boost the economy. The bill, passed in a cabinet meeting chaired by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, would give skilled, non-EU migrants a three-year working visa and facilitate the entry of foreign students if they promise to return home after their diplomas. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who backs the bill, has warned that France is losing out to the United States in attracting qualified migrants in technical and cultural fields. "France, like its European partners, cannot remain on the sidelines of the global flows of intelligence and skills. Our dynamism, the modernization of our economy depends on it," he told the French right-wing Le Figaro newspaper.

"Neither France nor its European partners can be satisfied with a situation where the elites from developing countries head massively to the United States or Canada, while the European continent receives an under-qualified immigration," Sarkozy wrote.

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