"International Migrations: a Global Issue"
Catherine de Wenden, CNRS research director: CERI - Sciences Po.
-What will our migration situation look like by 2050?
We can draw conclusions from demographic data
since some of the people who will be here in 2050 were already born.
The migration factor is not only important but essential
to population growth in all European countries, including France.
France is doing better demographically than most European countries
since we reach the replacement level.
At the same time, the population is quickly aging
since the median age is 40 years old.
It was 28 years old in the 1950s.
It is 25 years in the Maghreb and 19 years old in sub-Saharan Africa.
Because population is aging, we have a need for workers
in the caretaking sector. We need a lot of caregivers.
This is an important subject in all of Southern Europe,
in Italy or Spain,
where most women migrants were massively regularized
as a solution.
We can imagine that caretaking will grow.
The need for caretakers for elderly migrants will also arise
since migrants are also aging.
Those coming from outside Europe did not go back home.
Today, we talk a lot about "chibanis",
North African migrants who usually worked in factories,
and remained on their own in hostels.
This situation may no longer exist by 2050,
but migrants aging will play a major part in the migration landscape.
There are other important elements related to the lack of workers.
Despite unemployment,
there are skilled positions which are not or poorly filled.
For instance, rural doctor positions are not automatically refilled
by new people taking over existing practices.
So Romanian or Bulgarian doctors with European degrees are called upon
to fill these positions.
In hospitals, where the diseases treated can be more complicated,
French-speaking doctors are required, usually from North Africa
or sub-Saharan Africa.
They must be able to have in-depth discussions with their patients.
Public hospitals have a lot of interns, substitutes,
short-term employees, especially during night shifts,
for emergencies or during the summer.
This migration landscape will probably evolve.
Some jobs related to finishing works in construction are also affected,
artistic jobs, such as cabinet-making,
as well as jobs poorly filled because of the structure of companies.
The infamous "Polish plumbers" were one example among others.
Jobs connected to agriculture and physical labor
are usually not taken by nationals.
The labor market is not very flexible
so they go to newcomers, often undocumented migrants,
and this situation will probably continue,
unless some of these jobs become more mechanized or automated.
In agriculture and construction,
there are and always will be newcomers
to handle the toughest and lowest-paying jobs.
The development of tourism creates and will continue to create
tourism jobs to cover everything the tourist cannot see.
These tasks are often performed by newcomers,
such as food service jobs.
We can assume that as France is the first touristic country in Europe
and in the world next to the United States
it will attract a lot of people requiring the services of migrants.
Another element of our future migration landscape is
a higher internal mobility in Europe. With the opening to the East,
Romanian and Polish people started migrating to other countries,
and France, to a lesser degree.
However in the future
and since the 2008 crisis in Southern Europe,
we have had qualified migrants from Southern Europe
seeking work in France, but most of all in Germany,
in England, in Scandinavia.
If these countries cannot find work for their highly qualified workers,
France will remain a destination for these populations.
The migration landscape will be different from today's
since countries South of the Mediterranean Sea
have started their demographic transition.
The fertility rate in these countries dropped from 6 births per woman
to 2.5 births per woman.
This tendency is visible all around the Mediterranean Basin,
including Muslim countries.
Extreme Islamism did not change the situation.
This is a major tendency around the Mediterranean Basin,
especially in North Africa.
There will be less people available for migration in the future
since they will belong to less numerous generations
and will have to take care of their parents.
So we will probably have more and more educated people,
more and more qualified people
coming from Africa among newcomers.