Industry: “We will undoubtedly have to resort to immigration,” estimates Roland Lescure

Is immigration necessary for the reindustrialization of France? In any case, this is what Industry Minister Roland Lescure emphasized this Saturday, estimating between 100,000 and 200,000 the number of foreign talents needed in the next ten years. “We will undoubtedly have to resort to immigration (…),” he said on the website franceinfo, while this Monday the Legal Commission of the National Assembly will consider the highly controversial text on immigration, already considered in the Senate.

Dozens of other countries, for example Germany or Canada, are already following this path, the Minister of Industry noted. “We must do everything possible to make the French nation once again an industrial, ecological and sovereign nation,” he urged, insisting on the need to “make every effort to train” and “seek young people to the suburbs” where unemployment remains much higher than the national average, but also to increase the employment rate of older people.

“We’ll probably have to look elsewhere.”

“I did not say that the floodgates of economic immigration need to be opened wide,” he remarked understatedly, while the issue of legalizing illegal workers in stressful professions is being actively debated in parliament. But, as Roland Lescure explained, “if we manage to train an industry of 800,000 to 900,000 young and old people in the next ten years, that, frankly, will be an exceptional event” and “there will still be a shortage of 100,000 to 200,000 (workers).” which will undoubtedly have to be found somewhere else.”

“This is not about the tsunami,” he insisted, calling for “a somewhat peaceful view of the subject” and a move away from the “somewhat cartoonish” immigration debate in France. “We need to be more decisive and effective (on illegal immigration),” he said, but there is also, he continued, “more informed immigration that helps us, there is a win-win.”

The industry needs to fill about 1.3 million jobs over the next ten years through retirements (800,000-900,000) and planned new businesses, the minister said. He welcomed the “Talent Passport” system, which allows residence permits to be issued to foreign engineers or researchers. But he says there is currently a shortage of other skills in French industry, such as welders or machinists.