Three Million Foreigners, Three Million Unemployed? Immigration and the French Labor Market

In March 1996, an estimated 2.8 million foreigners age 15 and older were living in France. In the same year, an average of 3.15 million people were unemployed. These two separate observations have led some to conclude that immigrants are directly responsible for the high unemployment level in the country. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether such conclusion is supported in a careful analysis of the French labor market. Specifically, we are interested in investigating whether the magnitude and characteristics of immigration flows bear some responsibility in the ever-increasing rate of unemployment in France from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s.