New Immigration Bill Offers Hope to Undocumented Workers in France’s Labor Shortage Sectors

"We were with my children, Aya and Ziad, and they themselves immediately understood the impact it could have. Ziad told me: finally mom, it would be possible to get papers thanks to his job," confides to Actu.fr Laïla Aboudya, welcoming "very good news". Arrived in France in 2018 from Morocco to flee her husband who was mistreating her, this 45-year-old mother of two has settled in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, in the Manche, where her two children aged 11 and 15 are in school. She had received an Obligation to Leave French Territory. Today her situation has been regularized, but the prefecture has not always allowed her to work.

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Laïla claims to have held many jobs, "always in tension": childcare, work in the catering industry, home help, care for the elderly. "But it’s difficult to work without papers!" she insists. The forty-year-old says she now has a contract with an employer "to be a home helper". An untenable situation for this mother of a family who is pinning her hopes on the future law on asylum and immigration.

"I’m tired of this situation. It’s very anxiety-provoking, for me, my children. I’m fed up with being part of these invisible people and I think this law could get us out of the shadows," she says. "It’s very difficult not to feel excluded when you don’t work, not to be stigmatized. The situation would be more stable. It’s simply a law of humanity," adds Laïla.

The immigration bill will be examined in parliament in early 2023. Its adoption will facilitate the lives of undocumented workers in France who are often trampled on in their dignity. "I’ve never been confronted with it, but of course some are underpaid, humiliated and can’t say or do anything because they’re illegal." It will also facilitate recruitment, particularly in the construction, catering or agriculture sectors. "It would be a solution for everyone. Even temp agencies are closing due to lack of candidates," Laïla insists.