France’s family policies have been a huge success. But as the French government tries to reform pension schemes and immigration policy, its citizens are taking to the streets.
 | With France's fertility the highest in the EU, babies might take a backseat in President Nicholas Sarkozy's agenda to pension reform and immigration (Photo: Reuters) |
Family Policy
A few years ago, France passed Ireland to become the most fertile country in the European Union. It is now approaching the "replacement" level of fertility - 2.1 children per woman - not reached since the end of the postwar baby boom in the mid-1960s. Experts say one key to this resurgence is not forcing young adults to decide between career and family, but rather making parenting more compatible with working.
For decades, the French government has been dangling incentives like tax breaks and free or subsidized childcare services for working parents. Those who preferred to stay at home received months of paid maternity leave. Other European states, particularly the Nordic countries, have caught on, and are also seeing their birthrates inch upward.
Pension Reform
Robust fertility alone, however, is not enough to stop the general aging trend in France. Since at least the early 1990s, French policymakers had known about the threat that the retirement of the postwar baby boomers would pose to the pension system, but nothing much had happened until recently.
Now that they are turning 60 and collecting their first payments, economists warn that this system, which was created under vastly different demographic conditions after World War II, could now plunge the government into serious debt.
 | Infographic (click on the image to enlarge)A comparison of health care costs in France and other rich countries (Graphic: Allianz) |
So far, the focus of reforms has been on increasing contributions - mostly by forcing people to work longer before they retire. A 2003 reform to extend working years from 37.5 to 40 years prompted such crippling national strikes that railroad and utilities workers were made exempt from the reforms.
President Nicholas Sarkozy, however, has pledged to end these "special regimes" that allow some workers to retire early. In so doing, Sarkozy faces a fight with some of France's most powerful labor unions.
Immigration and Integration Policy
France population structure is marked by its colonial history in North and West Africa. According to 1999 census data, around 3 million North Africans live in France. Many of them entered the country as French citizens when former colonies in Algeria and sub-Saharan Africa gained independence in the 1960s. Among the estimated four million foreigners that immigrated to France throughout the 20th century were mainly Portuguese, Spanish, and Italians.
The constant influx led to calls for tighter immigration policy in the 1980s that led to major changes in French immigration policy. Although the far-right's calls for "zero immigration" have not been realized, the current French policy has evolved into what President Sarkozy has called "selective immigration."
While France is keen on attracting skilled labor from abroad, the government has introduced annual deportation quotas, accepts fewer asylum seekers, and has changed the process of family immigration. Since 2006, immigrants must wait longer before they bring in family members. Once in the country, they must sign a "welcome and integration" contract, take French courses, and prove their willingness to integrate into French society before granted permanent residency.
Although France has been praised in Europe for its ambitious anti-discrimination laws, the Migrant Integration Policy Index scores France low for its complicated immigrant family reunification and residency policies. Job opportunities and political participation rights for immigrants in France are around the European average, according to the Index.
We spoke to a number of experts about demographic trends in France. Click on one of the following themes to read the interviews: fertility, migration, or pensions.
editor: Valdis Wish
publishing date: February 20, 2008
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