November 21, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 15, 1423

PARIS, Nov 20: A governmental report on immigration has recommends that if France decides to resort to increased immigration as a solution to the aging of its population, and of its work force, that it do so on a selective basis.

The report, considered as “major”, has been issued by the Commissariat general du Plan (CGP), an advisory body that reports to the French Prime Minister’s office and which provides long- term recommendations on such important issues.

The report, authored largely by Francois Heran, director of the Institut national des etudes demographiques (INED) and a noted authority on immigration, proclaims from the start that immigration is not the miracle solution for France with regard to the aging of its population and notably the declining size of its work force.

Heran says that it’s not only “perfectly illusory” but also “absurd” to think that bringing in more foreign workers, and increasing their ratio in the work population, will help the government alleviate the problem of a declining number of younger workers supporting the country’s growing number of retirees and a retirement system considered as archaic.

Still, argues Heran, France does need the input of immigrants notably in the sectors of construction, maintenance and public health.

The report also deals with the brain drain that France has been subject to the past several years — notably since 1981 — and proposes that France emulate the United States and establish a policy that would allow highly-qualified workers to immigrate to France on a selective basis.