Ith bill “to control immigration and improve integration”the examination of which by the National Assembly has been postponed by the government, included several measures to promote the employment of foreigners: an extension of the list of shortage occupations which allows employers to escape the cumbersome procedures for applying for prior authorization for the hiring of a foreigner, the simplification of the regularization of workers in an irregular situation in sectors in tension, and the possibility of working in a job in tension only for asylum seekers who do not have still received refugee status.
These advances would be beneficial, even common sense, but why stop there? The observation is shared by all: work is the best integration factor there is. It allows you to leave your community, which is difficult to escape in France because of the centralization of the processing of asylum applications in Paris to the detriment of social diversity and an equitable distribution of the reception effort on the territory. It makes it possible to emerge from its independence vis-à-vis national solidarity, fluctuating. It allows you to be in contact with our language and our customs. Finally, it gives the immigrant an interest in persevering in the effort to integrate into his host country, since it is a question of preserving a more stable income and life.
So why not allow all foreigners to work and do business freely? To lead this adventure with dignity that has taken them so far from home, never for leisure? Why not make economic integration the main reason for regularizing and welcoming foreigners? If our duty of humanity orders us to protect political refugees, whoever finds his place in our labor market has not de facto won his place in France by passing from the stigmatizing accusation of being a ” responsibility for society” to the recognition of being a “living force”? Coming out of hiding would also benefit the public authorities: by definition, we do not know the illegal immigrants on our soil.
Distribute the effort
Allowing an asylum seeker to work is commendable. But business leaders in a strained industry need predictability. They will be few to take the risk of employing and training him if he may be subject to an obligation to leave French territory in the event of his application being rejected. A foreign employee who, after exhaustion of appeals, did not obtain his refugee status but contributed for two years to our economic life, does he not deserve to stay in France? Rather than a half-baked solution, why not allow people who have succeeded in their economic integration to stay, even if they have not obtained refugee status?
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