The country is struggling to fill around 400,000 job vacancies, most notably in the construction industry
France wants to grant residency permits to illegal migrants working in sectors “under strain” as it struggles to fill some 400,000 job vacancies in key industries.
Widespread labour shortages have hit France’s construction sector particularly hard, but without a majority in parliament, the centrist government needs to convince other political forces to back their plan to make it easier for illegal migrants to obtain residency permits.
In an interview with Le Monde, Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister, said: “If a foreigner illegally in France says ‘I want to work in a profession under strain’, the labour minister is proposing to create a ‘profession under strain’ residency permit to be defined. So he will have adequate social protection.”
“Perhaps we don’t give enough residency permits to people who work and who certain bosses use as a reserve army of labour – as Marx would have put it,” said Mr Darmanin.