France to start setting quotas for migrants

PARIS (AFP) — France will from next year start setting quotas for migrant workers, its labor minister said Tuesday, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government seeks to toughen immigration policies in response to right-wing criticism.

Starting next year, authorities working with employers will identify industries lacking qualified candidates and facilitate the hiring of foreigners to fill the gap, Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud said.

“This is about France hiring based on its needs. It’s a new approach, similar to what is done in Canada or Australia,” Penicaud told BFM television.

Currently employers have to justify why a French citizen cannot be hired in a complex administrative process, which resulted in around 33,000 economic migrants being granted visas last year.

Construction, hotels and restaurants, and some retailing sectors have long complained of a shortage of people willing to take what is often low-paying work.

Information technology and engineering industries, by contrast, say France does not produce enough qualified candidates.

Penicaud did not say how many foreign workers would be granted visas, nor if an applicant’s nationality would be taken into account, a proposal aired by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe last month.

Philippe is spearheading Macron’s move to toughen rules on immigration in a bid to woo right-wing voters who accuse the government of allowing in too many foreigners despite unemployment at 8.5 percent in the second quarter.