PARIS: France is to double the number of French lessons it offers to refugees to 400 hours in order to help them integrate, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Tuesday.
The extra lessons are part of immigration reforms under President Emmanuel Macron intended to balance swifter deportation of rejected asylum seekers with better support for those allowed to stay.
The lessons will rise to 600 hours for new arrivals who are particularly struggling to learn the language, Philippe said after the first meeting of an inter-ministerial committee set up to work on the integration question.
Philippe said French efforts to integrate migrants had until now “lacked ambition,” adding that the country needed a policy “worthy of our republic for all those to whom we give the right to stay in France.”
He did not say how much the scheme would cost.
Extra language lessons were proposed as part of dozens of measures in a report by Aurelien Tache, a lawmaker from Macron’s Republic on the Move (LREM) party, which he estimated would cost a total 607 million euros ($710 million).
France will also double to 24 hours the “civic training” courses given to refugees, designed to explain French values as well as practicalities such as how to obtain work, health care and housing.
Many recent arrivals find the barrage of information in the current 12-hour course overwhelming, but Philippe said an understanding of fundamental French values such as liberty, fraternity and equality was “not an option but an obligation.”
Immigrant parents will also be offered free childcare during their French lessons, while those turning 18 will have access to a new €500 “culture pass” for young people to spend on museum trips and other cultural activities.
Philippe said the measures, which will also include better help for immigrants in finding jobs, were an investment in France’s “national and social cohesion.”
France received a record 100,000 asylum applications last year and offered refugee status to around 30,000 people, while deporting 14,900.
Though the notorious “Jungle” camp in Calais was cleared in 2016, increasing numbers of migrants have been camping along the canals in Paris in recent months, many from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sudan.
On Monday police began evacuating around 1,000 migrants from two makeshift camps, five days after another 1,000 were taken to temporary lodgings.
France to offer refugees 400 hours of French lessons
France to offer refugees 400 hours of French lessons
- Prime Minister Edouard Philippe: French efforts to integrate migrants had until now “lacked ambition,” adding that the country needed a policy “worthy of our republic for all those to whom we give the right to stay in France.”
- Immigrant parents will also be offered free childcare during their French lessons, while those turning 18 will have access to a new €500 “culture pass” for young people to spend on museum trips and other cultural activities.
North Korea and China to resume passenger train service after six-year gap
- China’s railway authority said in a notice that Beijing-Pyongyang trains will operate four times a week
- The resumption from March 12 will “further promote China-North Korea travel, trade and economic cooperation”
SEOUL/BEIJING: Tickets for the first passenger train in six years from Beijing to North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, were sold out ahead of its March 12 departure, an official ticketing office in Beijing said on Tuesday.
The resumption of the rail service, suspended since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, revives a critical transport link between the largely isolated North Korea and its primary economic ally.
Tickets for the journey — restricted to travelers holding business visas — were purchased by entrepreneurs, government officials and reporters, according to the Beijing ticketing office. Tickets were still available for the next service, scheduled for March 18.
NORTH KOREA STILL LARGELY CLOSED TO TOURISTS
China’s railway authority said in a notice that Beijing-Pyongyang trains will operate four times a week in both directions on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday while Dandong-Pyongyang trains will run daily.
The resumption from March 12 will “further promote China-North Korea travel, trade and economic cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges to enhance mutual well-being and friendship,” the notice said.
North Korea remains closed to most foreign tourism, with limited exceptions largely for Russian tour groups under restricted arrangements, according to travel agencies organizing trips to the country.
Before the pandemic, Chinese visitors made up the largest share of foreign tourists to North Korea, the agencies said. Tour organizers said on Monday that North Korea had canceled next month’s Pyongyang Marathon for unspecified reasons. The race is one of the few events that has been open to international participants in the isolated state.
