France tightens visa policy as unemployment rises

PARIS - France is tightening conditions for foreign workers to obtain visas because unemployment is rising and the priority is to get people already in the country back to work, a policy document signed by the president shows.

In a letter to Immigration Minister Eric Besson, President Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged for the first time that the dire labour situation has an impact on his immigration policy.

“The absolute priority must be for people in France who are deprived of work to get back into jobs,� said the letter, dated March 31 and released on Tuesday.

The instruction will apply mainly to visa applicants from outside the European Union.

France last year dropped restrictions on workers from 10 EU member states that joined in 2004, who no longer require work permits. Some restrictions are still in place for workers from Romania and Bulgaria, but fewer than for non-EU migrants.

With unemployment rising across the world because of the global economic slump, migration for work has become a sensitive issue. British workers protested at power plants in late January against the use of foreign contractors at energy sites.

France has not seen protests targeted against foreign workers although it has experienced other forms of labour unrest since the crisis began. Workers facing layoffs have gone on strike and, in three cases, taken managers hostage.

The jobless total in France leapt 19 percent year-on-year in February to 2,384,800, according to the most recent government data, and is expected to keep climbing this year with daily news of companies slashing jobs.

In his letter, Sarkozy said the jobless rate among foreigners from non-EU countries living in France was 22 percent. For the whole population, the rate is about 8 percent.

Sarkozy said new work visas should be granted for only two reasons-to fill jobs in sectors where firms face a structural dearth of EU labour, and to bring in people with a proven ability to create jobs or otherwise stimulate the economy.

This approach could slow or even reverse the growth in work visas delivered by France in 2008. It issued 33,034 work visas last year, an increase of 22.5 percent compared with 2007.

Until now, Sarkozy’s approach to immigration was broadly to say that France would crack down on those coming illegally while improving procedures for those applying through the legal channels and with credible work prospects.