Why is immigration being used by France's elite , as an excuse for its failure to reform?

Ah, immigration has become the bugbear of politicians all over Europe. For us in France, both the left and the right are using it as a cause for all our social ills. It is perhaps not surprising that we founding nations of the European dream have opted out of letting the mass unemployed from the east fill the jobs we do not want to do. We in France have a state that has failed its citizens, we have estates full of unemployed, and we need Tony Blair to replace our present crop of failed leaders. Instead, our political elite blame their failures to modernise France on the immigrants.