From BBC News

Nicolas Sarkozy at his interview on French television [6 March 2012]

Nicolas Sarkozy says the system for integrating immigrants is at risk of breaking down

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said there are too many foreigners in France and the system for integrating them is “working worse and worse”.

In a TV debate, Mr Sarkozy defended his plan to almost halve the number of new arrivals if re-elected next month.

Mr Sarkozy is trailing in the opinion polls behind the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande.

He is also competing for conservative voters with the far-right National Front party led by Marine le Pen.

The president said while immigration could be a boon for France, it needed to be controlled more tightly through tougher qualification rules for residency.

Mr Sarkozy, whose father was a Hungarian immigrant, also said he wanted to restrict some benefit payments to immigrants who had been in the country for 10 years.

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