Immigration has failed to produce the promised economic panacea in France and has rather resulted in a negative strain on the economy, costing the nation an estimated 3.4 per cent in GDP, a think tank has claimed.
The Observatory of Immigration and Demography (OID) argued that immigration has not only negatively impacted the social structures within France but has also come with a “budget deficit” in which taxes collected from immigrants only make up 86 per cent of what they cost the taxpayer, Le Figaro reported.
The OID think tank attributed this imbalance to the fact that just 62.4 per cent of working-age immigrants are actively employed in France, the worst performance of any EU nation except Belgium at 61.4 per cent and well below the EU average of 67.5 per cent. In contrast, native French workers have a 69.5 per cent employment rate.
This means, according to calculations from the think tank, that if immigrants had the same employment rate as the native born population, the French GDP would be 3.4 per cent higher than it currently stands and taxable income would be one and a half points higher.
Observatory of Immigration and Demography director Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti said: “Immigration maintains a vicious circle which harms employment and the French economy: it aggravates the structural problems of employment in France, degrades public accounts and indirectly penalizes exposed sectors of the economy.”
Pouvreau-Monti said that while public discussion of immigration is often centred around specific sectors which have frequent short-term labour shortages, such as in the hotel and restaurant, and construction industries.
However, the OID founder said that the “short-term vision prevents us from thinking about the best way to make these professions more attractive for people looking for work.” Meanwhile, such immigration is often focused on low-skilled labour rather than on high-skilled workers that drive innovation.
Hellbound and Down 