France to set 'annual quotas' for migrant workers in taboo-breaking move

Henry Samuel
President Emmanuel Macron has told his camp to lead the way on immigration or be dismissed as a
President Emmanuel Macron has told his camp to lead the way on immigration or be dismissed as a

France is to introduce annual quotas for non-EU migrant workers in a taboo-breaking move seen as part of President Emmanuel Macron's attempt to toughen his stance on immigration to ward off the far-Right.

Starting next year, authorities and bosses will earmark industries in need of qualified staff and make it easier to hire foreigners to fill the gap, said Labour minister Muriel Penicaud.

"This is about France hiring based on its needs. It's a new approach, similar to what is done in Canada or Australia," Ms Penicaud told BFM TV.

Others measures due to be official unveiled on Wednesday by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe include suspending health care for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants for the first three months in the country.

The Government says it wants to stamp out “health tourism”, particularly from Albanians and Georgians, who don’t require visas to enter the Schengen passport-free zone.

“Lots come to get healthcare. They know it’s free,” a ministerial source told Le Monde.

Mr Macron recently warned his centrist colleagues not to shy away from tackling immigration or risk being dismissed by many voters as an out-of-touch “bourgeois party”. After initially rejecting the idea of quotas, he mooted the idea in January during a national debate in the wake of "yellow vest" protests.

President Emmanuel Macron initially mooted cutting immigration during the revolt of the "yellow vests", some 40 per cent of whom are estimated to support Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration party - Credit: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images Europe
President Emmanuel Macron initially mooted cutting immigration during the revolt of the "yellow vests", some 40 per cent of whom are estimated to support Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration party Credit: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images Europe

A large majority of French feel there are too many foreigners in the country, which received a record 122,743 asylum requests last year, up 22 per cent from the year before, while most EU members saw a drop in numbers.

The measures come as polls suggest that Mr Macron's main political rival in the run-up to 2022 presidential elections remains Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-Right National Rally. A survey out this week saw her gain 45 per cent of voter intentions in case of a run-off with Mr Macron compared to 34 per cent in 2017. The pair would be neck and neck in round one.

Currently employers have to justify why a French citizen cannot be hired in an arcane process, which resulted in around 33,000 economic migrants being granted visas last year. Its list of sectors lacking national candidates has not been updated since 2008.

While France’s unemployment remains at 8.5 per cent - high by British standards but the lowest in the country in a decade - there are shortages of people willing to accept low-paid work in areas such as construction, hotels and restaurants, and some retailing sectors.

At the higher end, there is a dearth of qualified national candidates in areas from the IT and engineering industries to vets.

Ms Penicaud said that nationality was not a criteria and that the “professional” migrant would have “a visa for a fixed period and for a given job”.

French conservatives tentatively welcomed the quota plan.

“It’s an idea we have defended for many years so I won’t say it’s a bad idea,” said Aurélien Pradié of the conservative party, The Republicans. But he said Mr Macron would be only taken seriously if it was put to parliamentary vote and MPs fixed quota levels.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the former conservative French President, shelved an idea setting professional quotas for migrants back in 2009 - Credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/ AFP
Nicolas Sarkozy, the former conservative French President, shelved an idea setting professional quotas for migrants back in 2009 Credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/ AFP

In fact, ex-Right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy already announced the idea in 2007 only to quietly shelve it after a report warned they would be “unrealisable and without interest”.

Critics say the professional quota system is pointless as economic migrants only represented a tiny slice of the 256,000 people handed legal stay permits last year.

On the Left, Olivier Faure, head of the Socialist Party, slammed the measures as “politically cynical, scandalous on a humanitarian level and reckless in terms of public health”.

Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT, France’s biggest union, said the Government was needlessly “waving the red flag” on immigration and that denying migrants health care for three months would have “disastrous consequences for the people concerned, for social workers, volunteers in charities, people in health centres etc.”

France has also called for a shake-up in EU efforts to stem the surge of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa since 2015.

Mr Macron has repeatedly called on EU members to better share the distribution of migrants, pointing the finger notably at states in Eastern and Central Europe.

He sparked anger in Bulgaria last week after telling a Right-wing French magazine that he would rather take legal migrants from Guinea or Ivory Coast than "clandestine networks of Bulgarians and Ukrainians”.

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