Something to Drive Ellis Crazy

I mentioned how my Internet searches are often and inexplicably interrupted by French ads, pop-ups and solicitations, many of them the sort Collette, deSade and Henry Miller would have approved, (why does a search for "Soubrette" bring up sidebar ads for French porn?). Well, one persistent pop-up would be giving Ellis (and probably many Americans) fits: "Get Your American Greencard!"

According to some of the figures I've read in the Metro, where one often sees prominent posters promising a life of low taxes and prosperity in the U.S. of A., France is allotted more Green Cards per annum than any other country in Europe, possibly the world. Is that true? I wonder if the French are hoping that the U.S. will take a few of their African and Middle Eastern immigrants, along with the purely Gallic imports—or is the demand for Green Cards coming purely from French people wanting to leave France behind? As one of the hopeful students pictured in an ad for an English language school testifies, "I speak Wall Street English!"

Watch out folks: the French are coming.