French people are increasingly firm on the issue of immigration. The OpinionWay poll that was carried out for Le Figaro -LCI television shows that a large majority (74 per cent) is in favour of limiting family reunification to only those persons who master the French language. This is true for Nicolas Sarkozy's voters as well as for those who chose to vote for Francois Bayrou in the first round of the presidential election (71 per cent) and, also a large share of Segolene Royal's supporters (65 per cent). These results show that the opposition is going to have difficulty attacking Hortefeux's text, which is aimed at making the conditions for reuniting families and, in a broad sense, family immigration harder by imposing a language test.
The general public has completely integrated the idea that there is a need to control [immigration] flows. ''It is the reaction of socialist and centrist voters that is particularly interesting,'' analyses Bruno Jeanbart, OpinionWay's director of political studies. ''On the question of immigration, they are clearly on the right and follow the government's policy. This is not the case for economic and social questions. Consequently, this is an issue on which Nicolas Sarkozy has the complete backing of voters from the extreme right and it does not make those who vote socialist flee.''
A majority of French people is also hostile to any idea of automatically granting legal status to undocumented immigrants. French people - on both the right and the left - come out in favour of doing this on a ''case by case'' basis. People were not stirred by the various hunger strikes that caught the media's attention this summer.

''Ideological Stance''
Although the poll shows a certain amount of consensus among public opinion about the need to control immigration, it nevertheless reveals a few differences between the left and the right on the means for getting there. Forty nine per cent of leftist sympathizers back the idea of limiting family reunifications on the basis of income while 69 per cent of Bayrou's followers and 81 per cent of Sarkozy's followers do so.
Likewise, socialist sympathizers reject the idea of a ''selection'' made on the basis of a person's profession. Thus, they show their hostility to the principle of immigration selected ''on the basis of the foreigners that France needs''; to use the head of state's expression. ''This is an ideological stance that goes beyond the idea of immigration,'' explains Bruno Jeanbart, ''this is the fear of globalization and the laws of the market.''
Only one of the questions asked in the OpinionWay poll did not get a majority favourable opinion. It had to do with the principle of quotas based on nationality. Only National Front voters completely support this. However, a large majority claims to be in favour of the general principle of quotas.