France to tighten immigration controls after riots

France unveiled plans yesterday to tighten immigration controls in response to its worst urban rioting in almost 40 years, saying it would no longer accept immigrants "nobody else in the world wants".

"The government will act firmly and with a sense of responsibility," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters after a meeting on immigration control, which followed unrest led mainly by youths of Arab and African origin.

He proposed a longer wait for citizenship for foreigners who marry French people, a tougher selection process for visiting students and close checks on immigration by families joining a foreign worker already living in the country.

He also called for tight policing of polygamy, which is illegal in France but some centre-right politicians say was one of the causes of the unrest because children from large polygamous families have problems integrating into society. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who threatened to expel any foreigners involved in the riots, told Parliament that France no longer wanted "those people that nobody else in the world wants".

"I agree with what the Prime Minister said. We want selective immigration," Mr Sarkozy said.

Thousands of cars and some schools were burnt in three weeks of violence in poor suburbs that abated two weeks ago. The rioting involved many disaffected youths of various ethnic origins, as well as some white youths.

Many of the rioters complained of a sense of exclusion from mainstream French society, as well as unemployment, and the unrest fuelled a broad debate in France about immigration.

Foreign workers in France can now be joined by their family after a year, and around 25,000 people were involved in such moves in 2004. But Mr Villepin said this was not long enough and the waiting time should be increased to two years.

"Integration into our society, notably a grasp of the French language, should be a condition for bringing your family here," he said. "That ensures the future of the spouse and of the children but also of society."

Around 34,000 French married foreigners from countries outside the European Union and Switzerland last year.

Under Mr Villepin's plans, a foreigner who marries a French person will obtain French nationality after four years if the couple lives in France - two more than now. The wait will increase from three to five years for couples living abroad.