Publié le 02/10/2015
Emma BROUGHTON

Migration policies and rules applying to the recruitment of foreign workers impact HR and recruitment processes of French private companies. Administrative procedures are both complex and time consuming for they might require extra actions from those employees in charge of the recruitment process. The difficult access to clear information coupled with the impossibility to anticipate the outcome of recruitment procedures hinders economic objectives of firms and impacts their competitiveness.

Migration policies might as well have an impact on the relation between candidates of foreign origins and their recruiters. Rules applying to entry and residence of foreigners have introduced new responsibilities for firms who are expected to control the administrative situation of candidates and foreign workers. While recruiters often lack the sufficient knowledge of migration Laws to overtake such tasks, they feel uncomfortable with responsibilities they consider as police actions. However, these new requirements imposed by French regulation on firms have brought recruiters to develop procedures of social and administrative support for foreign candidate and employees, therefore playing a key role in their integration. Companies have thus inherited control and support responsibilities and become full-fledged agents in the implementation of migration policies.

This study is a result of the “Migration and management” research program launched in 2011 at the Center for Migration and Citizenship. It is based on the results of field work carried out between September 2013 and July 2014 in four French companies. Particular attention was paid to recruiting practices of foreign workers and managers’ view on the issue.

The whole study is in French only: L'entreprise, un opérateur des politiques migratoires ? [1]

See also the Center for Migration and Citizenship synthesis and recommendations [2] on migration policies’ impact on French companies.