What contribution does immigration make to the French economy? The question was put on the table during the debate which opposed Tuesday evening Manuel Bompard, representative of the New Popular Front, Gabriel Attal, of the majority, and Jordan Bardella, of the National Rally (RN), with a view to the legislative elections. While speaking to the president of the RN on this subject, Manuel Bompard declared: “Contrary to what you say, immigrants in France do not cost money, they bring in money. Over the last ten years, it has been established by the OECD that immigration brings in 10 billion euros each year. »
The question of the cost of immigration is at the heart of the campaign, in particular through the proposals put forward by the RN, which wants to reduce the aid provided to foreign nationals. Where does the figure cited by Manuel Bompard come from? 20 minutes looked into the matter.
FAKE OFF
“The argument is correct but not properly contextualized,” says economist Jean-Christophe Dumont, head of the international migration division of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). This intergovernmental economic research organisation is the source cited by the coordinator of La France Insoumise. In his work on thebudgetary impact of immigration in OECD countries since the mid-2000sthe organization communicates data on the budgetary contribution of people born abroad.
The OECD does not give net data but rather percentages of GDP. In fact, we can read in theone of the tables in this document that people born abroad bring to France on average the equivalent of 0.42% of GDP. “This corresponds more or less to 10 billion, so this figure does not come out of nowhere,” explains Jean-Christophe Dumont. It corresponds to social contributions paid by immigrants, from which the amounts of individual benefits received, particularly related to housing or health, are subtracted.
An imprecise number
Several nuances are then necessary regarding Manuel Bompard’s remarks. First, the OECD data does not really correspond to the “last ten years”, but to the period between 2006 and 2018.
Second, this data is not the reference calculation used by the OECD. The organism prefers the one from another painting, which reports 1.02 points of GDP. That is to say “between 20 and 25 billion” in contributions, specifies Jean-Christophe Dumont. Indeed, the first figure (10 billion) takes into account the costs linked to the education of children born in France to immigrant parents. “It’s a biased calculation,” explains the economist. We are unable to identify the extent to which these children contribute to the labor market [par les impôts ou les contributions sociales] when they have grown up, so we count a cost without the counterpart. »
Finally, we must remove from this figure other public expenditure for people born abroad but which cannot be individualized, such as those linked to infrastructure or institutions, such as the police and justice. “When we remove these expenses, we arrive at an approximately neutral balance,” explains Jean-Christophe Dumont.