Immigration has not delivered the economic benefits long promised in France and may, in fact, be dragging down the country’s economy, according to a report by the Observatory of Immigration and Demography (OID), according to Le Figaro.

Rather than boosting growth, the think tank claims immigration is costing France the equivalent of 3.4 per cent of its GDP due to a significant mismatch between the taxes immigrants contribute and the services they consume.

Le Figaro reports that, according to OID, taxes collected from immigrants cover only 86 per cent of their fiscal cost, creating what it calls a “budget deficit.” This imbalance is largely due to low employment rates among immigrants: only 62.4 per cent of working-age immigrants in France are employed—one of the lowest rates in the European Union, just ahead of Belgium. The French native population, by comparison, has a 69.5 per cent employment rate.

The OID argues that if immigrants were employed at the same rate as native-born citizens, French GDP would be 3.4 per cent higher, and taxable income would rise by 1.5 percentage points.

“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,” said Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti, director of the Observatory.

He acknowledged that the public debate often focuses on short-term labour needs in industries like hospitality, construction, and food service, but warned this is a narrow perspective. “The short-term vision prevents us from thinking about the best way to make these professions more attractive for people looking for work,” he said.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/immigration-costing-france-34-its-gdp