2023-12-20 18:19:06
Barely known on Tuesday, December 19 afternoon, the text of the joint committee, the unions mobilized against the immigration law. “You have in your hands a voice to resist this project which shames our country”wrote to the deputies the general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, denouncing “provisions profoundly calling into question the fundamental rights and dignity of people”.
And “bill of shame”insisted the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet in a video to parliamentarians, while Force Ouvrière asked them “solemnly (…) not to vote for this useless and dangerous text”.
But if the unions had already been fighting for several months against the bill brought by Gérald Darmanin, Medef also, and in a more unusual way, gave its voice. Until now, as much out of concern not to intervene on a subject relevant to him “of the regal” that in order not to divide entrepreneurs with very diverse positions on immigration, the employers had been rather discreet.
“In France, the working population will decline from 2035”
But the president of Medef Patrick Martin broke the silence on Tuesday morning on Classical Radioto try to put the debate back on the economic front. “In France, the working population will decline from 2035, he recalled. However, our social systems, whether retirement, unemployment or health, are based on work income, and therefore on employment. »
In his eyes, the debate on immigration law has focused too much on the question of undocumented workers, “sensitive but minor subject”, he believes. Fewer than 10,000 workers would in fact be affected according to Medef, which nevertheless recognizes that the Valls circular was a source of legal insecurity for employers.
However, if the government consulted the employers on this subject, neither it nor the parties contacted Medef on the economic merits of the debate. “Failing that, I will speak”explains Patrick Martin, regretting that “the political configuration of the moment, with the absence of a majority, results in technical games which are more in the immediacy than in the long term”.
“We will need 3.9 million foreign employees by 2050”
“However, demographic data from INED establish that, unless we review our economic model and our social model, we will need 3.9 million foreign employees by 2050”recalls the “boss of bosses”.
He gives the example of home help: “There will be 800,000 positions to fill by 2030: do we choose foreign labor or give up a certain form of personal assistance? »he asks, judging that “the spectrum of needs for chosen and reasoned economic immigration is broad”.
“In tech or digital, many of our young graduates go to the United States, he illustrates. And we have difficulty bringing engineers of the same level, or even higher level, from countries outside the European Union: this penalizes us in terms of competitiveness. »
“We will have to rationally choose foreign labor”
While foreigners represent 38% of doctoral students and 16% of engineering students, the provisions of the law concerning students are therefore worrying at Medef, where we also refuse to advocate economic immigration to benefit from a workforce. cheap work. “It’s not the bosses who are massively demanding immigration, it’s the economy”insists Patrick Martin.
If, for him, the priority is “first of all to put people far from employment to work”he emphasizes that, given the scale of needs, even a return to full employment will not be sufficient.
“When the day comes, we will have to rationally choose foreign labor”he insists, recalling that the entire European Union is concerned. ” In Italywe remind Medef, even Giorgia Meloni, elected on a program of refusal of immigration, had to take a pragmatic position on the subject. » It has just decided to bring in 452,000 foreign workers by 2025.
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