Professor Randall Hansen discusses immigration policy in Britain in the Economist

June 10, 2011

Just a few more notes from last week’s conference at the Dallas Fed, this time from France and Britain.

One of the interesting aspects of immigration in France is that it highlights the tension between integration and anti-discrimination. Like other countries, France has at times been in the business of soliciting immigrants, but not just any immigrants. Of course, as we saw with Australia, a country can’t just pick and choose its immigrants, unless it has the will and the capacity to fiercely enforce its borders against irregular migration. And so France, in recognition of this reality and with its high degree of cultural self-regard, adopted an aggressive stance on integration. Patrick Simon, the head of France’s National Institute for Demographic Studies, explained that by the 2005 “integration contract”, would-be immigrants were checked on “integration skills” such as knowledge of French values and norms, and linguistic proficiency. Integration was thereby not just an abstract concept or a vague policy goal: it was a selection criterion. “The idea is to produce invisibility,” said Mr Simon, “invisibility so equality will be reached.”

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