“At a time of economic crisis, if Europe doesn’t pick those who can enter its borders, it won’t be able to finance its welfare state any longer. We can’t leave the management of migration flows to technocrats and tribunals.”— campaign rally, March 11, 2012, vowing to renegotiate and tighten the European Union’s internal Schengen border treaty, or pull France from it.
Under the treaty, signatory states still decide which non-EU travelers and immigrants they allow visit or reside within their states—after which time legal aliens may circulate freely within the Schengen area. Despite Sarkozy’s rhetoric, EU technocrats and courts don’t manage national migration choices.