French president Sarkozy has always been known for his unforgiving stance on immigration and security issues: the fact that these two vast sets of policy issues are connected in his mind underscores Sarkozy's tendency to merge the narratives around crime and immigration. In recent weeks, however, a controversial policy which targets the Roma - gypsies, as they are sometimes called, who hail primarily from Romania and Bulgaria, two relatively new EU member states - for deportation has been stirring the debate.