The World around Us. Любинская Н.А. - 26 стр.

E. Writing
In 8–9 sentences write about your views on Russia’s accession to the WTO.
Your ideas should be based on the information and vocabulary of the previous
two articles. Choose a suitable title for your composition.

                   Unit 8. France’s Illegal Immigrants
Lead in
People visiting different countries are sometimes surprised that they can rarely
see native residents in such countries as, for example, Great Britain, France or
Germany.
The world is flooded by immigrants. What makes people leave their native
places?

                                  A New Balance
France’s new government is trying to create a “balanced” immigration policy
        How many illegal immigrants reside in France? Whatever the true figure–
2000,000 to 400,000, according to various estimates – they have been enough to
discomfort a string of governments by demanding the right to stay. In 1991, for
example, a group of unsuccessful Kurdish asylum-seekers embarrassed the So-
cialists with hunger strikes; in 1996 the centre-right government of Alain Juppé
sent in riot police to dislodge 300 Africans, mostly from Mali, who had sought
refuge in a Paris church. And now comes the turn of the centre-right government
of Jean-Pierre Raffarin: thousands of illegals have greeted its return from holi-
day with a series of street demonstrations in Paris and other cities – and another
is promised for September 28th.
        All of which could mean a nasty political headache not just for Mr. Raf-
farin but more particularly for his interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy: a hard line
would alarm those many French citizens who take human rights seriously; a soft
line would give ammunition to an extreme right whose presidential candidate,
Jean-Marie Le Pen, last April got more votes than Lionel Jospin, the Socialists’
then prime minister.
        Hence, last-week, Mr. Sarkozy’s careful choice of words: “France needs
immigrants, but France cannot and should not welcome all immigrants.” As the
minister went on to argue, immigration is an issue all too often taken hostage
both by the “fanatics of zero immigration, which is a nonsense given that France
is built on its diversity and by liberal “extremists” whose call for automatic le-
galization would only breed xenophobia. In other words, France must have “a
balanced policy, without pretence or hypocrisy.”
        No hypocrisy? For sure, France does need immigrants. Southern wine-
makers and fruit-growers, for instance, complain that they cannot get enough
workers, despite jobless rates over 9% of the work-force, while United Nations
statisticians say that France would need 1,7 m immigrants a year to maintain its
demographic status quo. In accordance with European Union policy, however, the
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