HIs Mother is from Greek Jewish and French Catholic descent. Maybe Nicky should read up on his family tree a little.

He didn’t say that at all. He said the annual numbers permitted were unacceptable high.

Peter, http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0307/france.html “”Our system of integration is working more and more badly, because we have too many foreigners on our territory “

But if the Gates Were left unlocked and only certain countries had keys would it be prudent?

It is racist when the enforcement of that policy reduces human beings to worse conditions than in the country theyre attempting to flee

I live in Germany now also, things have become easier since Germany was more or less forced to open it’s borders and employment market to EU foreigners (trust me, it was much worse at one stage).

Their method is to use any beurocratic means possible to make your life as a foreigner in their country a living Hell, and also to create seemingly invisible barriers to job entry.

Anyways, if Sarko also means EU Citizens, I would think he is off the mark.

Non-EU Citizens need to be monitored, let’s face it – we aren’t allowed to simply march into the US or Australia either and their are sensible reasons for this.

@Karl – I’d lived on other countries before Germany, but the last seven years have been an eye-opener. I was very naive in the beginning, how inflexible and unyielding the system’s are unless you have been born and/or fully educated here. It’s not an easy country to move to and live in, so I’m always sceptical of the “they don’t want to integrate” argument ( although the is a certain truth to it on certain cases ).

My main point is that, for many people, there simply is no urge to change the MultiKuli hypocrisy. Apart from Kebab shops, second-hand phones and Kiosks, many “German” Germans have no interest in having a connection with the Turkish community. And they don’t think this is a bad opinion to have.

As for regulation and monitoring, I agree totally, although I know this won’t be a popular opinion. What I think many readers and commenters won’t get is that Germany ( as an example of an EU State ) monitors it’s citizens ( ID Cards – registering addresses etc. ) at a level that Irish people would find mildly shocking. It’s not a question of whether monitoring immigrants is acceptable or not, it’s whether monitoring people is acceptable or not. And then it’s only about pragmatics; at what level does monitoring become unacceptable?

Totally agree John, I sometimes feel that I am in Big Brother / a Police State or something.

Anyways I have lived in Germany before for many years and knew what I was getting myself into :-)

That’s very true.

Given that droves of Irish are emigrating on a daily basis, it isn’t a good move to “toughen up on immigration”. Kinda sends a mixed message, or are we saying the we are the “good” immigrants and the others are “bad”.

As for France, their processes of integration have been a complete disaster, but it’s not so easy to turning back the clock. Of course they should try and find solutions to this mess, but this reeks of being another attempt at a quick fix, i.e. a botch job.

Yes, but also look at the fact that they have no interest in integration. Peoples beliefs aren’t respected (you aren’t even able to wear a veil), people are expected to fit to certain norms, etc. Maybe if people were respected more for their respective cultures and beliefs, then there would be less stigma and stratification. Imigrants add a new perspective to a country we don’t often see outselves.

Hey Darren, this is a leaf torn from the Irish book. One of the most vile racist leafs on the Planet….to continue, there were 1938 applications for refugee status in this country, thats down from a High of over 11,000 in previous year. One of the Last acts of the previous Government in rubber stamping applications is Testament to this leaf. Now, immigration, the current Situation in ireland in claiming benefits should include Access to ghost estates through nama, so we can have 24hr cctv survilance on these estates and also the clean up of said estates, as a proposal like this would obviously generate some level of Action on the topic. 80,000 immigrants a year could easily be accomadated in ireland. Which Minister is Taking the horse to France?

@Ryan. I’ve been living on Germany for a few years now, and it’s a similar situation; integration policies have failed. Odd as it sounds, I do think that many parts of Ireland ware far more multi culturally integrated than many parts of Europe. The norm seems to be to have many different cultures living in a city, but contact between those cultures is not only unusual, it is actively discouraged. This is coming from all sides, and is not considered racist or hard line, this is the standard middle-class liberal viewpoint. There’s a lot of finger-pointing, the lack of integration is always the other side’s fault, not ours.

The reality is a lot more murky. No-one’s saintly. Yes, the “new” communities”, German citizens often at least one generation removed from those that emigrated to Germany, are often criticised for not wanting to integrate, but to be honest, they’re given very little incentive to do so. If they do, they’ll be treated as “good” immigrants, if not, they’ll be “bad immigrants. Either way, they will not be considered as equals by most of the “non-immigrant” population. This leads to ghettoisation in terms of both living and employment, which further strengthens the divisions in the society.

Official integration policies are doomed to failure if the general population have no personal wish to promote integration, and they won’t have a personal wish to promote integration if they have no incentive to do so. This is the mess that France, Germany and many other parts of the EU are in, and political pronouncements like to one above are not going to help this situation in any way.

@John C – yes i think we’re saying exactly that there are good immigrants and bad ones!

simple definition of this is immigrants like the Irish i think by and large – who look for work and have no interest in travelling to another country to sponge off their welfare system.

the more complex issue is integration – we expect that they adopt our language and culture – they expect to be able to create their own community and live by their own customs….

finding a balance between these is diffcult and to a certain extent requires open minds on both sides

Taking votes from le pen to catch up on hollande…he is a twerp.

You get a thumb down for simply asking a question??? Tough crowd…

I think he does mean fellow Europeans, and maybe he’s just being a crowd pleaser, ya know promises promises and when elected back track!
ps I thumbed you up twice as compensation :-)

Hehe, Ta.

Would be a bit of a joke if he meant EU citizens also, wasn’t really in the EU blueprint… Then again, forcing austeriy on smaller nations and changing the rules at will to suite your own needs also wasn’t…

Karl, this goes way back, currently the australlia and American reasons should not deter a europe from being whatever europeans want to be. I do Not want to be Part of a racist Regime, and find there really are no sensible reasons for border controls when it comes to people, going walkabout is something that should be tollerated on this beautiful Planet, not subjected to strip search, DNA analysis, and a paranoia spreading self fulfilling system of hatred. It obviously works in somones favour certainly not Mine and certainly none of denis walshs victims or denis himself.

Well, without control you will have chaos – I appreciate your opinion, but find it somewhat naive and viewed through tinted lenses to be honest.

If you removed all form of control, people would simply follow the money and destroy nations in the process – surely not part of your ideology.

As for the EU, the way I see it, EU citizens should be entitled to go wherever they want in the union, even France. Even in this instance however, you need controls which avoid welfare tourism.

Your being niave Karl. We already have Chaos. The controls we conjur up to create some order in that chaos is why to rent a house in Hamburg you have to sign a 39 page doccument and ship half your furniture round the world. Without money there would be no need to control welfare tourism.

@ Cupid’sD – Um, why did you have to sign a 39 page document to rent an apartment in Hamburg? I live in Hamburg, and my rental contract is nowhere near that length, it’s about three pages on text plus five pages on inventory. I doubt an Irish rental contract is much shorter. And shipping your possessions halfway around the world? If you live on the other side of the world then yes, you’ll have to bring uour stuff fron A to B but you can’t complain about that. From Ireland, the shipping route is fairly direct,bad both Dublin and Hamburg are port cities.

I don’t believe he means europeans. Sarkozy has made comments that can be construed as racist about muslims and North Africans since the riots in 1995 when he was Minister of the Interior. He’s been targetting that community with veiled comments ever since.

Yes, we really should have a clear policy of ghettoisation and criminalisation of immigrants. that’s exactly the message of openmindedness we want to project.

Hey Darren, this is a leaf torn from the Irish book. One of the most vile racist leafs on the Planet.

Look after your own first( which we don’t), and if there is anything left over, look after the rest. Now climb down off your amnesty soapbox and start thinking of Irish people 1st!

actually the aussies method is the best one.

you mean putting them all on an island far away (as in christmas island) jason? cant believe the anti-immigrant sentiment majority on here! truly shocking stuff!

Ireland is not doing enough to help immigrants coming here, In these tough times it is they who find it especially hard to get work and jobs to support their families because of status and langauge barriers, they should be welcomed and encouraged to participate in an integrated, multi-cultural society. France have an election so sarkozy is up to his tricks, but people should focus on the growing amount of immigrants comming here and the problems they face. We can help by learning more about their culture and heritage, special programs and projects for primary school teachers to help immigrant children learn, plus government funding for wider projects encouraging integration! Forget that Sarkozy fellow

I don’t know if ideas use the word take advantage but I definitely agree that france used the colonies for frances benefit and a lot of the wealth created was off the backs of the people in the colonies. France certainly have a responsibility to support people from their former colonies.

Well when we began making believe our boarders we never realised that some Day we may have to begin to unbelieve them….like a City of bridges they were only foundations to take us All somewhere. I take offence to your hippy remark because youve used it to attempt to explain an understanding…or generate a boarder between possible understanding. The EU can be very different and a continued disenfranchising of cultural differences only goes to burden the military. I say All this as an animal, or a sentient being if you will. So why on earth should the EU be any different?

Am sorry, but what you are writing makes no sense at all and you obviously took no time to read through the point that I was trying to make.

I meant no offence with the Hippy remark, but this is what your idealism reminds me of – removed from reality.

Anyways, good luck with your view of the world.

The infrastructure in Ireland is also overloaded because of years of underinvestment (prior to the “boom”) and because fewer people emigrated – in fact, many emigrants returned to the country. It’s a small country, and will always be held back so long as small minded attitudes persist.

not so much an unpopular opinion as a stupid one!

especially coming from an Irish man!

Yeah sure and by this rule you would not have couple million of Irish in USA, UK, Australia, Spain etc. It’s not the way to disallow people coming the thing that needs to be done is to control that somehow better and ensure there are no easy money on the street. Social Welfare needs changes and whole system too. You want to come in here work hard, pay taxes, set family, you’re more than welcome! You come in to sponge and live an easy life no no bye bye.

It’s not stupid to want your own countries people to come first, it’s just an opinion. If you knew what an opinion is you’d know it’s not all black and white meaning they aren’t stupid just because you disagree with them.

Fizi_Water, if there isn’t even a remote danger of them taking an Irish persons job and they’re a skilled worker, then they are welcome. If they want a holiday fine. If they want to do what you described with hard work,etc and they fall into skilled worker criteria then of course they’re welcome but a considerable amount of people are just coming here to abuse our social welfare system as you have pointed out.

Oh so you’ve heard similar rhetoric regarding immigration from Enda Kenny? If so, please provide me with a link.

Ok, well maybe the Irish Eoin O’Duffy?