Europe 1 with AFP 16:25 p.m., November 05, 2023

Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt on Sunday defended the introduction of a new residence permit for so-called shortage jobs, an article of the immigration bill opposed by part of the right, while saying he was "open to the form" that this provision could take.

"I've said from the beginning that I'm very open about form. I think that the residence permit with article 3 is a good method, but if another solution emerges from the parliamentary debate, why be closed?" he explained on France 3, on the eve of the start of the examination of the text in the Senate.

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The two sides of the Senate majority (right and centre) refuse to agree on Article 3, which provides for a one-year renewable residence permit for workers in an irregular situation employed in sectors with a shortage of manpower.

"It's a very important political issue"

"Some senators say: 'Couldn't we put a provision in the law allowing the prefect to regularise these people in an exceptional way without necessarily creating a new residence permit?'"

The minister hopes to "find compromises in the Senate and the Assembly for adoption by a traditional route", without recourse to 49.3, of the bill, which has been criticised by both the right and the left. "This is a very important political issue, an objective that we fully assume to say that the best way to integrate into our country is through work," he said.

"The objective we have is to allow people who are integrated, because they work and in difficult professions where it is difficult to recruit" to be "secure", he insisted. "By securing them, we also secure their employers."

Non-EU foreigners account for 3.8% of total employment

About sixty professions are considered to be occupations in shortage, according to the minister, who cited industry, personal services, but also hotels. In France, he recalled, non-EU foreigners occupy 3.8% of total employment.

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"When we look at certain professions such as kitchen assistants, we are above 25%, it is the demonstration that in these professions, if there were no foreign workers, it would obviously be very difficult," he said, specifying that the allocation of a residence permit via Article 3 could concern "a few thousand people per year, 7 to 8,000 people per year".