Labor Unions and Immigration Policy in France

The majority of French unions favored restrictionist immigration policy measures in the interwar period. In contrast, French unions have adopted more nuanced policy preferences in recent years, despite high unemployment levels. While they continue to favor some restrictionist measures, they have modified their positions with respect to a number of aspects of French immigration policy and have opposed some restrictionist measures considered or adopted by various French governments in the 1980s and 1990s. This study seeks to understand this multidimensional approach of unions and to account for the variation in preferences of unions at those times when unemployment hit in the interwar period and in recent years. The study asks to what extent the explanation is enhanced by considering changing union assumptions on the ability of the state to control effectively migration due to economic internationalization. The data suggest that this theme helps to explain union immigration policy preferences in recent years, although a thorough explanation also requires considering other causes.