Industry needs labour immigration, says Marc Ferracci

"Immigration and in particular work immigration is a necessity," declared the minister, often presented as a close friend of Emmanuel Macron, on France Inter.

"There have been many immigration laws in our recent history, I think we need to evaluate them, and above all implement them because not all the decrees have been passed," the minister stressed.

Recalling his recent visit to a French Stellantis factory, he noted that "on the production line" of this car manufacturer, there are "58 nationalities". "Without immigration, we don't know how to do it in the industry," he added.

Carlos Tavares, the head of Stellantis, had also argued on Sunday on LCI that France "needed" immigration to "increase its wealth and to serve the lifestyle of its population".

The minister also stated that it was necessary to "fight illegal immigration and give ourselves all the means to reduce it". According to him, before moving on to a new law "we must give ourselves time to evaluate what already exists and, above all, to implement what already exists".

His predecessor at Bercy, Roland Lescure, had also clearly spoken out in favour of the need for immigration in France in order to reindustrialise the country, in September and November 2023 during discussions in Parliament on the latest immigration law, which was finally promulgated last January.

Of the 1,3 million jobs to be filled in French factories in the next 10 years, "if we manage to train 800 to 900.000 young and old people in industry (...), frankly, it will be exceptional", he said, indicating that "we will probably have to look elsewhere" for other workers.