I had never heard of this idea until it was falsely attributed to me the other day, and now here it is getting close to being adopted as French state policy. It seems that unless it is coupled with sane and much-needed restrictions on the other end -- on immigrants entering France -- this is just creating a circular motion that will drain the French treasury. But at least it is a halting first attempt to do something to prevent the Islamization of France.
From Spiegel Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:
New French President Nicolas Sarkozy made immigration a central issue of his campaign. Now, his new minister for immigration and national identity says its time to start paying immigrants to leave the country.France is home to over 5 million immigrants -- and the new conservative-led government doesn't plan on making things any more comfortable for them. While the new regime in Paris is determined to curb illegal immigration, it is also looking to encourage legal migrants to reconsider their decision to stay in France -- by paying them to go back home.
New immigration minister, Brice Hortefeux, confirmed on Wednesday that the government is planning to offer incentives to more immigrants to return home voluntarily. "We must increase this measure to help voluntary return. I am very clearly committed to doing that," Hortefeux said in an interview with RFI radio.
Under the scheme, Paris will provide each family with a nest egg of €6,000 ($8,000) for when they go back to their country of origin. A similar scheme, which was introduced in 2005 and 2006, was taken up by around 3,000 families.
I've always had a soft spot for the French. You know you're doing something right when you turn out people like Debussy , Faure, Saint Saens , Ravel, etc.
WOW
Way to go France.
A great nation.
"It seems that unless it is coupled with sane and much-needed restrictions on the other end -- on immigrants entering France -- this is just creating a circular motion that will drain the French treasury."
Absolutely. In fact, the whole thing may be turned on it's head. More immigrants may flock in knowledge that they will be offered handy payments for leaving.
Ban Muslim Immigration.....absolutely....
"A similar scheme, which was introduced in 2005 and 2006, was taken up by around 3,000 families."
I wonder how many of those 3000 families have turned up back in france and will apply for another nice payout.
I have a better idea - pretend your gonn pay them, find out where they are from and then just pay the fare and kick them the hell out!!!
The Muslim philosophy: "Pay me now or pay me later."
It will only work if immigration is restricted and there are draconian punishments for being back in France.
Like an automatic 10 year jail term, but I doubt anyone will do that. So it will be a money merry-go-round.
Wish they'd pay me to go home, I only live down the road.
I agree with this policy! It is badly needed. Yes, you have to keep them from settling back in France. But at least you no longer have this strain on the educational, crime prevention and medical systems. Look, I think it is well worth 30,000 Euros to return an Arab family with children to Morrocco or Algeria. They need money to buy a home there. Pay them and get them out of France. A very wise use of tax dollars.
Maybe Bush should learn from Mr. Sarkozy's program. What about paying our illegal immigrants to return to Mexico or elsewhere.
Stop the handouts, benefits, welfare, social net, or whatever it is called in France, to anyone who wasn't born there to legal resident French citizen parents.
They should be easy to find since most are in the no-go areas.
Then whoever is left after that shakeout should be paid to leave.
I dont think France have gone far enough.
If they are illegal immigrants, France should deport them, with a grenade minus the pin.
We must assume before you pay one cent for one muslim to leave, you must stop any new muslims from coming in, in order to have a net loss, which they haven't done. So I don't get it. Does anybody understand the math behind this?
The Franc rises in value. This is a solid investment in the Future. Many Happy Returns.
Is France's currency completely Euro or do they still use francs? It occurred to me that I don't know.
Many Happy Returns?
Surely that was an unfortunate figure of speech.
P.S. The franc is no more.
In Holland this was first introduced way back in the 70s and is still in effect. The remigration benefit is commonly known as the 'oprotpremie' ('fuck-off premium').
Thanks Jihadwatcher - many happy returns.
The average high school dropout’s family costs the Federal Government $20,000 per year (paying $10k in taxes and receiving $30k in benefits). That works out to over a million dollars per family-lifetime. $8k is a bargain.
But if I were a Muslim father, I’d take the deal. The price is going down.
A_Plague_on_Both_Houses:
Is France's currency completely Euro or do they still use francs? It occurred to me that I don't know.
It is the Euro. But many French, German & Italians are deeply unhappy with the Euro. They want their old currencies back.
Many Germans at the point of currency swapover, noticed that prices for goods were marked upwards in Euros. Germans call the Euro, "teuro" which is a pun on the German word for "expensive". The Germans also miss the Bundesbank (the equivalent of the Federal Reserve) and think the European Central Bank is not a patch on the old Bundesbank.
The Italian economy is likely to be bounced out of the Euro. In the old days, when the Italian economy was not doing well, it devalued the Lira. Now that option is not open to them as they no longer control their own money.
It should be pointed out that currency unions in Europe have been tried before - all have failed.
So I expect long term, this will as well. The question that is not asked is, "Given all different European economies, how can 1 Central interest rate satisfy them all?". And it cant.
With America it is different. It is estimated that Americans have 27 times the mobility than Europeans (all though that is changing for Europeans). Americans will move from Phoenix to New York or Chicago or Los Angeles if that is where the jobs are. Changing your State is no big deal. But despite the recent changes in Europe, you will not get extremely large numbers of Italians moving to the UK (mind you, there are now 300,000 young French in the UK because the French economy is so dire). So the Euro acts as an unpleasant anchor to most ecomonies inside the European Zone, and only works if the current interest rate (an average) is the "right" one for your country.
I am thankful that the UK is outside the European Zone, we have retained our Pound and we set our own interest rates. This is what has contributed to the UK economic success (effectively we are doing the same as the Federal Reserve and it is what the Germans now realise they were undemocratically foolish to give up).
Thanks for the Euro/Union currency info UKIL.
If I take a vacation to France this summer, and stay illegally, maybe I can be paid to go home.
(Cost of trip $3000. Payment to return to my country of origin $8000. Profit $5000. Sweet!)
It's a sure sign that the French are not going down without a fight or at least have noticed the elephant in the lounge-room is defecating all over the carpet...
Sarkozy may turn out to be better than a lot of people thought he was!
As far as I see it, Sarkozy's proposal is a win-win proposition. I would go for a much bigger payout though to get more of the immigrants to leave. How about 20,000 Euros, Mr. Sarkozy. If he could get a million or more Muslims to leave, the plan would be a great success. The immigrants get more cash than they could get in several years of working in Algeria and Morocco. The French get rid of the immigrants and reduce the threat to their way of life and a civil war that may break out in a few years. Its really a very wise use of money.
I actually proposed such a plan for Norway's oil fund. Use that oil fund to pay legal Muslim immigrants to leave the country.
Mr. Bush-Start taking notes from Mr. Sarkozy.
Instead of them paying us to stay, how about we pay them to leave.
In the United States, suppose a Mexican husband and wife bring in 3 children with them. The cost to the average state of educating those 3 children each year is 30K. Add another 5k in medical costs. This is a real drain on state and local budgets.
Suppose we gave them 50K to go home. It's well worth it. Many would take it. Of course, we would have to pay it over time so that they couldn't sneak back over the border. And, we would have to toughen enforcement at the border so more couldn't get across.
Isn't this almost like an incentive plan to encourage impoverished Muslims abroad to relocate to France, then collect the monies and return? And what constitutes a "family"? So one wife (of half a dozen others) and two kids go back to Algeria...for a while...then return to hubby in France.
America should do the same with the all the illegal immigrants here!
Why not simply kick that rabble out? If they didn't save any money in all the time they were in France that's their problem, not the French taxpayer's. This idea might lead to a permanent class of wandering parasites, moving from country to country just to be paid to leave. Kick them out of France and then they'll end up in the UK, Germany, Canada, the US, Australia with hands stretched out for more money. Nuts to that! Kick them out for free-they might just go directly where they belong. The beloved ummah.
This is in the right direction.
Lets make Europe a Muslim-free zone
Are they going to be sent back or just sent out of France I have this nasty feeling that Labour government will be hoping that they come to Britain to increase the Labour vote. Once here they will be granted citizenship, and then as EU members they can go back to France, while claiming benefits from the UK.
Not only have they to be sent back but their French/EU citizenship removed, or else this is just a waste of money.
Its a good start though, and the whole process can be ratchetted up bit by bit.
profitsbeard
The payment is a Jizya, and I dont think you qualify. But try and find out. If it does hold then post itup , and I will move over to France.
“I had never heard of this idea until it was falsely attributed to me the other day, and now here it is getting close to being adopted as French state policy.”
Didn’t Enoch Powell say something very similar in Britain in the 1960s -- and became a pariah on account of it (the beginning of the tabooization of racial matters in this country)?
“You know you're doing something right when you turn out people like Debussy , Faure, Saint Saens , Ravel, etc.”
Agreed, but we could say that of every European nation. Unfortunately cultural excellence doesn’t always translate into political sagacity, more’s the pity. Cf. especially Germany, the country which produced Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Durer, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Thomas Mann, etc., etc.
Yeah, it's sort of a Jizah, but with a beneficial twist.
It's economically more expensive, but politically cheaper, to pay these cave-men to go home.
By my lights, money well spent. Hell, I'd chip in.
Yes, a policy of leave-or-die might prove somewhat cheaper economically. -- but I really don't see a leader on the political horizonn who could convince the public of that idea.
$8K per head. I'd buy. For the us it would add up to a few hundred million.
Well worth the price and well compensated for in savings on the homeland security side.
I think the provision has to be that they leave the E.U. Otherwise, it won't help. Anyway, I think this is a plan that could avert a future civil war in France. It has to be tried.
But I think Sarkozy has to go much higher with the price to get enought Muslims to accept the plan. And, the important thing is to get the young Muslims to leave, the 60 year old Arabs there aren't the threat.
Now to get the mexican government to do that!
There needs to be some kind of retina or fingerprint scan so that, if they come back, after they leave, they can be deported immediately.
From JFGR
"Agreed, but we could say that of every European nation. Unfortunately cultural excellence doesn’t always translate into political sagacity, more’s the pity. Cf. especially Germany, the country which produced Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Durer, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Thomas Mann, etc., etc.
Unfortunately very true.
For some reason, I have the feeling that the fight back - if it comes from anywhere - will come from Les Francais. They're a proud nationalistic people. And bloody ruthless and cynical to boot - ignore all the crap about the French being softies - A perfect mix for the fightback. And when their national interest is at stake they couldn't give le fart about international opinion.
Just ask NZ Greenpeace about that.
What a novel idea. Pay certain immigrants to leave.
If only we could start a new trend by deporting Ted Kennedy for being a TRAITOR.
The Federal Republic of Germany had a similar policy under Helmut Kohl of giving 5000 Deutche Marks to Turks to go back to their ancestral homelands( apparently they were not needed anymore as guestworkers-the original reason for bringing them there).Any guestworker that commits a crime is automatically deported.
Whether Germany still has this policy now I don't know.
I thought Sarkozy was great from the start, and was thrilled when he won. Now I think he's even better! Deport the illegal Muslims and pay the legal ones to leave!
Worth every cent.
Right - can we pay Ted Kennedy to leave? How about Nancy Pelosi? And don't forget Rosie O'Donnell!
Good Riddance to all! Enjoy your new lives in the Yemen. Nancy, you'll esp. like it there because females get stoned if they don't veil when in public. You can wear that nice black tent you bought for a souvenir at the bazaar!
Wow!! Praise for the French! Whatever next? Support for the other European sleazebags who failed to support the USA in Afghanistan and Iraq. The policy is idiotic. France would not have won the Soccer World Cup four years ago without most of the team being of immigrant stock ... let's get our priorities right.
Oh dear, you think all the Western countries should have supported the glorious "IRAQI FREEDOM" and "AFGHANISTAN FREEDOM" misadventures do you?
You really think that Infidels giving their lives so that both IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN have a KORAN-based-Constitution is a swell idea, don't you.
Sorry , but I think this kind of thinking is better suited on MB websites, luvvey
Oh, and it's FOOTBALL not SOCCER.
Purplemarbles:
"The Federal Republic of Germany had a similar policy under Helmut Kohl of giving 5000 Deutche Marks to Turks to go back to their ancestral homelands( apparently they were not needed anymore as guestworkers-the original reason for bringing them there).Any guestworker that commits a crime is automatically deported"
I didn't know that
Meekee:
``Our troops are helping them build democracies that respect the rights of their people, uphold the rule of law and fight extremists alongside America in the war on terror,''
Meekee cheers: "WOOOO, WOOOO , go tell it like it is Bush...WOOO WOOO....show those sleazebag Europeans - oh what a put down , a "sleazebag" - that the "war on terror" is working......WOOO WOOOO"
Meekee how about a little reading before beddy byes
a) Here's Iraq Constitution.
NOTE THE BIT ABOUT ISLAM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101201450.html
b) Here's Afghanistan's
NOTE THE BIT ABOUT ISLAM
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/af00000_.html
c) Here's the fate of NON muslims in Iraq
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/010722.php
But all you can do is label the Europeans as "sleazebags" for not supporting the misadventures that have
a) made ISLAM stronger
and
b) wiped out the Christians in Iraq.
And I won't mention the 1,000's of infidel lives and the trillion bucks down le toilette....whoops , too late.
As I said , I think a al-ikhwān website may be more to your liking.
Go for it....WOOO WOOOO
It may be something we should do!
MZ . Oh, absolutely right.
Name a senior US or UK politician who's said anything remotely similar to what the French have already planned.
This whole "pay for repatriation" thing smacks too much of dhimmitude and an extortion racket for me to go along with it ..
However - there are many historical attempts to "encourage" the "immigrants" to "go home" - and none have succeded
Suppose, for example, this example was adopted by Spain?
The "pateras" that bring "sub-saharans" to the Canaries on an almost daily basis would become nothing more than the more sophisticated "protection racket" than it already is ..
Right now - illegals floating across to the Canaries are sent straight back after medical care and a hot meal.
If we *paid* them to go back - we can only expect the numbers of "pateras" (and illegals) to rise
The real problem is that the countries that "turn a blind eye" to the construction of these crude boats will turn the faucet to full.
Somebody out there in those countries that have a thriving trade in building flimsy "boats" (aka "pateras"), finding potential "clients" (aka "illegal immigrants" or "sin papeles") and then finally and callously abandoning them at sea to find their own way to the Canaries (relying on the goodness of our hearts - and the Crux Roja - to look after them *if* and when they arrive) is taking black money to perpetuate this evil trade.
The trade in pateras is akin to the slave trade - the lords and masters of these "sub-saharan" states care nothing for the people they export because the whole enterprise generates cash.
Lots of it.
This "new slave trade" exploits the fears of the hopeful who want a better life but do not have enough money to pay for a legal entry - and then abandons them.
People in those countries are making money - and not just the boat builders - otherwise a single swoop on the beaches where these boats are prepared would wipe out the problem once and for all.
But there is no crackdown on illegal pateras in these countries - too much money is sloshing around ..
Many who try once try again - and again - and again
Is it really because we have such a better life in the west that they risk all?
Or is it becuase they are exploited by agents of corrupt governments who encourage them with tales of a "better life" in the Cararies - knowing full well that they might be dooming them to deprivation, dehydration, deportation and possibly death?
Attack the problem at the source - rather than sending each group back after a hot meal and basic medical care - and this evil "new slave trade" will fade away like mist in the morning sun.
To do otherwise - to repatriate with pay - is only to "up the ante" on a protection racket ..