“The employers know what they’re doing”: France’s undocumented workers say their bosses profit from their precarity 

Paris, France – Amid a national strike over France’s budgetary crisis, labor unions are calling for greater protections for undocumented workers.

Organizers say undocumented workers — often migrants who have been under fire from right-wing opposition parties — “contribute greatly to the economy, from boulangeries [bakeries] to small businesses.”

French workers have taken to the streets over the past month to protest a budgetary impasse and more generally, the policies of President Emmanuel Macron’s government, which dealt a major blow last week when the government collapsed again for the third time since June 2024. 

The most recent of the demonstrations took place last Thursday, September 18, when nearly over 500,000 protested in Paris alone. Among them was Philip, who spoke to EU Reports about his motivations for dissenting current policies.  

Philip has been a member of the local CGT union in Gennevilliers Villeneuve la Garenne, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Paris, since 1980. He estimates that of the 130  members of their union, 70 of them are sans-papiers (“without papers”, undocumented). 

On Thursday, he helped organize the small fleet representing the CGT union, holding out a banner that read: “Sans-papiers workers: striking for our dignity and rights. Regularisation and hiring in CDI” (indefinite term contract).

Ten days prior, ex-prime minister François Bayrou failed to secure a positive confidence vote from his peers in the National Assembly and forcibly left government.

During his speech before being ousted, the ex-prime minister pointed out that certain opposing parties believe it is the fault of immigrants who are siphoning, or rather “wasting” all of the state’s funds, while others believe it is precisely the responsibility of France as part of the EU to take in those in need. 

Bayrou remained centrist, arguing that it is imperative to closely examine each regulation to make sure that fellow citizens are not subject to injustice. He pointed to his decision earlier this month to enact the report on State Medical Assistance (AME), published two years earlier by Claude Evin and Patrick Stefanini. The report found that while this welfare system, mostly used by undocumented workers, is useful, it was under significant duress, and therefore its access criteria should be tightened. 

“The sans-papiers are constantly attacked; it is a policy pushed by the employers. They know very well that there are sans-papiers. 98% of the employers know at least,” Philip noted. 

“It’s a policy of outsourcing to reduce costs,” he further told EU Reports. 

Without a contract, sans-papiers can’t claim their worker rights, and the employer doesn’t have to contribute to the national welfare fund Urssaf, which redistributes social security benefits. Instead, undocumented workers are left to use State Medical Assistance, which has nearly tripled between 2004 to 2023- from 154,971 to 456,000 people. 

Not only would regularising more workers lessen the burden on State Medical Assistance as a recipient of state spending, but it would also boost France’s employment rate. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France currently ranks 25th out of the 27 EU member states, with just 69% of its population employed.

In May 2025, the government posted a list of all the jobs en tension (in need of workers) that could be applied to by sans-papiers, granted they justify twelve months of salaried work over the previous 24 months and at least three years of permanent residence in France. 

Among the many jobs, the government highlights a shortage of salaried farmers, nurses, kitchen assistants, cooks, domestic workers, and cleaning staff, as well as salaried market gardeners and horticulturists. 

Despite exhaustive, the jobs posted are sectioned by region: “There is still an absence of entire sectors of the economy where the vast majority of undocumented workers are found”, said Jean-Albert Guidou, Secretary General of the local CGT union in the Bobigny commune, in the northeastern Parisian suburbs.

For example, in the Île-de-France region around Paris, the list excludes entire sectors where undocumented workers are heavily employed, such as construction, much of the service industry, logistics and waste management- all of which are in high demand, according to Guidou. 

As per the annual census of the governmental agency France Travail, the labor demand in this sector in 2025 is estimated at 336,000 jobs, with recruitment “difficulties” for half of them.
Philip continued: “It’s a question of solidarité (solidarity) but also common interest. We all want the same rights. As soon as a person starts working, they should have a normal contract and be regularised. That’s just equality.”

Featured image:
Image: Over 1 million protesters took to the streets, September 18, 2025
Credit: La CBT via X