2023-12-21 07:12:09
Published on Dec 21 2023 at 6:12
It was one to midnight. Tuesday morning, a few hours before the joint committee on the immigration bill which was going to set the political world on fire, the president of Medef, Patrick Martin, put his feet in the dish.
“It’s not the bosses who are massively demanding immigration, it’s the economy,” explained the boss of the bosses on Radio Classique. For the latter, “by 2050, we would need, unless we reinvent our social model, unless we reinvent our economic model, 3.9 million foreign employees”.
“A complex subject”
This release came after several months of a relative media diet on the subject from employers. “This discretion was an assumed line. Many aspects of the bill go beyond the legitimacy of Medef. And then seeing employers pleading for economic immigration can give rise to violent criticism and have counterproductive effects,” explains one of its leaders.
Same deduction for the CPME. “We can say that we remained timid in our speeches, for fear of being taken hostage by one camp or another. Immigration is a complex subject which requires a political choice by the nation, it is not up to entrepreneurs to decide,” explains to “Echos” François Asselin, the president of the organization representing SMEs.
Taunts from the political world
This late awakening sparked ridicule within the political world. The president of the Law Committee at the National Assembly, Sacha Houlié (Renaissance), said this Wednesday he was “appalled” by these bosses who “remained silent for 18 months” while “giving us files in our offices for regularize their employees.
As for the LR mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, he posted a message on X to criticize with Marxist accents “immigration as a reserve army of employers”. An exit which does not improve his popularity within the business community, even though he had already made little impression during a recent hearing by Afep, the circle of large companies.
Several reasons dictate this change of direction by Medef, decided by its authorities. Some believe that this exit “puts an end to the little music of a new leniency from the business world towards the National Rally”, according to a manager. Employers’ organizations must deal with SMEs whose leaders may be tempted by a Marine Le Pen vote, but in reality it is less immigration than the growing weight of the State that motivates them, according to an old hand in the economic world .
Hysterization of the debates
Above all, the business world is worried about the hysterization of the debate around immigration. It is not so much the question of the regularization of undocumented workers, which has nevertheless polarized parliamentary discussions. “A sensitive subject, but minor in our eyes,” insisted Patrick Martin. This Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, indicated that the voted text would make it possible to double the number of regularizations per year, from 10,000 to 20,000, without specifying what these new forecasts were based on.
On the other hand, the question of work immigration – which in 2022 represented only 16% of visas issued in France – raises real concerns, as the country prepares to experience accelerated aging.
“In France, the active population will start to decline from 2036,” explained Patrick Martin. “We have a lot of difficulty bringing in engineers, which penalizes us in terms of competitiveness,” he recalled, also citing the example of personal assistance professions for which “800,000 positions are to be filled.” by 2030.” “Of course we must attract people who are far from employment as a priority. But should we choose to bring workers from abroad? We think so,” he stressed.
European competition
And 2021 report from the Economic Analysis Council had already pointed out France’s difficulties in this area, the country having chosen to attract “poorly qualified, poorly diversified and few in number immigration”. The subject is little addressed in the bill, other than through the creation of a talent residence permit, limited to four years and reserved for bac +5 graduates.
French employers seem to be worried about the competition on labor immigration which seems to be establishing itself in Europe. Germany is considering implementing a points quota system similar to that of Canada.
Even Giorgia Meloni’s Italy has just made a spectacular turnaround in this area. The far-right leader, under pressure from employers, approved this summer the granting of 452,000 new residence permits to meet labor needs. “It’s surprising to see that there is greater maturity in Italy compared to France on the subject,” underlines a Medef manager.
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