France and Morocco Sign Agreement to Boost Seasonal Farm Worker Recruitment

The agreement was signed by the French Federation of Agricultural Employers’ Unions (FNSEA) and the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII), and the Moroccan Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills (ANAPEC). It aims to provide Moroccan labor to French farmers who are currently facing a shortage of seasonal workers, reports Le Figaro.

For now, the number of Moroccan seasonal workers to be recruited by France under this new agreement is not specified. But according to official data, French demand over the past four years has more than doubled, from 6,300 agricultural workers in 2018 to 15,700 in 2022.

"We want to lay the foundations for a virtuous and responsible approach whose challenge is clear: to offer farmers a collective and secure recruitment process, while guaranteeing seasonal workers an introduction, integration and return to their countries in an organized and respectful framework," explains the FNSEA in a press release.

For his part, Didier Leschi, director general of the OFII, specifies that this agreement is "a fine example of circular migration, with workers that we transport thanks to temporary residence permits, depending on the agricultural production calendar." In addition to Morocco, France will also recruit seasonal workers in Guinea, Mali, Tunisia and Côte d’Ivoire, according to 2019 data from the European Migration Network (REM).