relocation
The bottom line: France's 'Welcome Contract' 14/02/2006 00:00
A new immigration law could require all residence-permit seekers from non-EU countries to sign a contract with the Republic. Signees get civic lessons and language training – but not the dreaded language test. We review what's already in place and what the new law may bring.
In the coming weeks, French lawmakers will be making sweeping changes to the nation's immigration policies. For incoming Anglophones from non-EU countries, this could mean signing a 'contract' that will require you to attend one day of French civic training as well as language lessons if you don't speak French.
Immigration official Jacqueline Costa-Lascoux (Source: Kathryn Valdal Fourie)
This is the way France is planning to implement language training for its immigrants, in line with existing policies for new arrivals in other EU countries including Germany, the UK, Austria, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. But, although the idea has been raised, the government is not currently planning to impose an actual language test, the prospect of which spooks even seasoned French-speakers. 
The 'contract' — known as the contrat d'accueil et l'intégration (CAI) — in fact has been in place since 2003. Until now, signing the contract has been purely voluntary and new arrivals from Anglophone countries have been notably likely to abstain, Jacqueline Costa-Lascoux, the director of l'Observatoire Statistique de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration and a member of the Haut Conseil à l'Intégration (HCI), told Expatica in an interview last week.
But that will change if a bill introduced last week is approved. Along with a host of other immigration policy changes, the bill's high-profile supporters, including Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, want to make the contract mandatory for all incoming foreigners from outside the European Union.
In a February 5 interview with the Journal du Dimanche, Sarkozy said that before granting a ten-year residence visa, the préfectures and mairies would have to verify that the applicant has signed and respected the terms of a CAI.
The new law will be up for debate in the French senate later this month.
