Excerpt:
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”.