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FRANCE
will soon open employment opportunities to thousands of
Filipino nurses and information-technology professionals
to meet its increasing labor-market demand, said the
French envoy to Manila.
French
Ambassador to the Philippines Gerard Chesnel said his
government is hoping to conclude an immigration
agreement with the Philippine government that would open
France
to Filipino professional and skilled workers.
He said
France and many countries in Europe have experiencing a
very low rate of population growth and an increase in
aging population who need health care.
“We are
in the process of discussions with the Philippine
government. We have already signed the letter of intent,
and we hope to sign the formal agreement this year,” he
said in an interview at the Belgian residence in South
Forbes Park during the celebration of the International
Week of Francophonie.
But
Chesnel said
France
does not want to aggravate the Philippines’ current
problem on brain drain, as it cited that the agreement
would only cover a period for employment of the Filipino
professionals.
“Those
who are coming are people who can be useful to France
and who can also be usefully trained and useful to the
Philippines
when they come back. Our policy is not to make brain
drain. We think the best thing we can do is to have your
competent people to come to France to work for six,
nine, 10 years, and then they go back to the
Philippines,” he explained.
For
skilled workers, the French government will limit the
employment contract for three years but renewable once
they return to their home country and the needs of their
employers.
Negotiations for the immigration agreement with France
involve agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA), the Department of Labor and Employment and the
French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National
Identity and Co-development.
Brice
Hortefeux, French minister of Immigration, Integration,
National Identity and Codevelopment, announced in
February this year that the Philippines is among the
Asian economies that qualified under the third-category
quota policy set by the Attali Commission. Economies in
the third category are Asian and African nations that
have “traditional links” with France.
Chesnel
said
France also seeks to ensure that the Philippine economy
benefits from the immigration agreement by putting a
provision in the immigration agreement that requires the
Filipino worker to leave 20 percent of his salary with
either their employer or the government. The returning
Filipino worker can get the fund upon return to the
Philippines, with a condition it would be used to put up
his own enterprise.
Professionals in the fields of nursing, electronics and
IT practitioners will be prioritized for hiring in
France,
said Chesnel.
“Most
countries in Europe, we don’t have enough young people
who are willing to take care of the old people. We know
that Filipino nurses are very good for that and they
respect your people and treat them well. This is the
population we would like to welcome,” he said.
The
economic immigration in
France
has three categories. The first is for nationals of the
27 EU member-economies to be hired in up to 150 sectors.
The second is the access to limited 30 sectors for
nationals of third-category countries who have legally
established their stay in France. France has accepted
some 88,000 immigrants on family reunion grounds, which
is a 12.3-percent decrease compared with 100,323 over
the same period.
The DFA
records showed that there are about 65,000 Filipino
workers in France, more than half of whom are
undocumented domestic helpers. |
