’Living in fear’: The plight of France’s undocumented workers
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Transcript
00:00 They're speaking up for the first time. These six undocumented migrants were hired by a
00:05 construction firm promising to help them stay in France legally. Almost all of them worked
00:11 on large hotels and office buildings for over three years, enough to qualify for a residency
00:16 permit under a proposed new law. To avoid the extra cost of a soon-to-be legal workforce,
00:22 their employer pressured them and several of their colleagues to resign.
00:28 Builders that hire undocumented workers are worried that that source of labour will dry
00:32 up. They're concerned that these foreign workers will get the rights to work legally, and asked
00:38 to have their rights respected.
00:41 These builders turned to France's large and powerful left-wing trade union, the CGT, for
00:46 help.
00:47 That is not a good saw. We pay the price. We get injured.
00:52 That's how we carry them from the ground floor to the sixth floor. 90 kilos. That's how I
00:57 ruined my back. I lifted over 28 doors. After two days I felt a pain here. It's over.
01:06 This injury happened on the construction site. I was carrying something heavy and I tripped
01:11 and I hurt myself. When you get injured on site, they tell you not to say that it happened
01:15 on the job. You have to pay your own medical bills out of pocket.
01:22 These workers are like cannon fodder. Some employers who are unable to fill their vacancies
01:27 legally actively go looking for undocumented people to hire. But the working conditions
01:32 are so bad, and the pay is so low that even they don't want to do it. And other businesses
01:38 look to hire these workers simply because it boosts their profit margins.
01:47 Escaping abusive labour conditions is a high-stakes gamble. The clandestine workers could be given
01:53 leave to remain in France legally or they could be deported. While some workers are
01:57 hired using their real names, others must lease someone else's identity to the tune
02:03 of several hundred euros a month. Moussa fled jihadist violence in Mali a decade ago, but
02:09 his asylum application wasn't successful.
02:13 To work, instead of stealing to survive, I paid for someone else's identity. He is here
02:18 legally. You get everything photocopied, including the social security card and residency permit.
02:23 I pay 30 percent of my salary to use his identity. If I earn 1400, I get 900 euros and he keeps
02:30 the rest.
02:32 Since 2013, he's gone through four aliases. To avoid being I.D. checked by police, he
02:37 rarely goes outside, except for food and work.
02:43 Since coming here, I've not had a moment's peace. I've been living in fear for ten years.
02:48 I dress well, I carry myself well, like an ordinary person. I don't dress like a thug.
02:53 It's the only thing I have control over.
02:55 Back home in Mali, Moussa studied law, but now he's a rubbish collector in the greater
03:00 Paris suburbs. Around half of his 30 colleagues are in France illegally.
03:07 It's not written on your forehead that you don't have papers. When you're undocumented,
03:11 you don't get paid holidays or unemployment benefits. You can work up to ten hours a day.
03:17 Employers see the advantages. You're always available for work and they always need you
03:21 to work.
03:23 Because his pay slips and tax returns aren't in his name, he had to ask his employer for
03:27 a certificate proving that he'd been working there for several years.
03:32 I need to have my true identity recognized and work legally. Some employers ask for money.
03:36 Mine wanted 6000 euros.
03:40 Undocumented women are often cleaners. Marie cleans public and private buildings non-stop
03:45 from four in the morning to ten o'clock at night every day. This charity explained to
03:50 her that without a paper trail, her past five years of work aren't enough to grant her residency
03:55 in France.
03:57 They did it on purpose. There's lots of cleaning ladies who aren't here legally. If you don't
04:01 have papers, being a cleaner is pretty much the only job you can do. Daycare centers,
04:06 social services and offices, no workplace can function without us cleaning ladies.
04:11 The charity L'Assimade helps over 100,000 people a year and has noticed a stark difference
04:17 in how some newcomers are welcomed.
04:22 Ukrainians are treated well in France. We want all foreigners to be treated like this.
04:34 Solicitor Jean-Albert Guido has taken on the case of two Brazilian cleaners who never got
04:39 payslips and whose employer stopped paying them. The mother and daughter duo were often
04:43 together, doing work that was physically gruelling.
04:49 I worked 12 to 15 hours a day. She never offered me water or food. My mother worked until her
04:58 fingers bled.
05:04 There were days when we couldn't buy food. When I arrived here, I didn't have winter
05:09 clothes. I scavenged through rubbish bins to find some. It's very tough.
05:16 We left our country for a better life. And instead, we went through hell.
05:25 To get the work permit, unauthorized workers must be in industries with labor shortages
05:30 and not all jobs will count.
05:36 The jobs that currently qualify are skilled work. But less skilled trades aren't mentioned.
05:43 Woodworkers and unskilled construction workers aren't on the list. There's no shortage
05:49 of cleaners, kitchen clerks or dishwashers. So they aren't included either. The irony
05:56 is, of course, that these people are migrant workers and that's why there's no shortage.
06:03 As many as a million people in France are undocumented workers. And local authorities
06:10 currently have the power to grant or deny eligible workers legal right to remain in
06:15 France at their discretion.
06:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]