MOSCOW (Sputnik) — French presidential hopeful Francois Fillon suggested on Wednesday that France should impose caps on non-EU immigrants to be decided each year through a parliament vote and to depend on employment, housing situation and other social factors related to accommodation and integration of migrants in the country.
"I want France to decide each year how many people it can accommodate according to its economic capabilities," Fillon said, speaking on the BFMTV broadcaster, citing as an example Canada, where the parliament fixes quotas on migrants annually "in a transparent democratic debate".
The former French prime minister and now the frontrunner in the presidential elections set for next spring, who represents right-wing The Republicans party, also proposed to extend to eight years the period of residence in France before being granted the right to obtain French citizenship, and reiterated his earlier proposal to refuse citizenship to foreigners who had been convicted.
With 80,075 asylum applications that France received in 2016, according to the recent data by the French Office for Refugees and Stateless Persons, migration has become one of the hottest issues ahead of the elections.
Another contender for the top job — far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen — has also proposed limitations on the number of migrants, suggesting she would limit the immigrant number to 10,000 per year. On Tuesday, even the left candidate for presidency — Socialist ex-prime-minister Manuel Valls — admitted that while supporting the right to asylum, France must do it "with a lot of control".
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