Worried about the aging of the French immigrant population

France's almost natural living conditions, relaxed working pace of 35 hours per week and developed and sound medical insurance system have continuously improved the life expectancy of French people. Last year, the average age of men and women reached 78. 1 and 84.8 years respectively, making it the longest-lived country in the EU after Spain. However, under the aura that life expectancy has been refreshed repeatedly, the problem of aging population in France has become increasingly prominent.

"Europe is getting old." France is getting old day by day. According to authoritative estimates, in 2060, one-third of the population in Europe will be over 60 years old, the total population will be reduced by more than 20 million, and the proportion of the elderly over 80 years old will reach 2 1. 1%. The challenge of aging in Europe has attracted the attention of Eurostat and its member States. Although France has stepped out of the shadow of the "inverted pyramid" in terms of birth rate, the national population reached 65 million in 20 10 and entered the ranks of countries with rapid population growth in Europe, the development trend of social aging is worrying.

French women now have an average of 2.0 1 child, which will undoubtedly increase the number of young people under the age of 20, but their proportion in the total population of France will drop from 25% to 22%. According to relevant research, from now to 2035, the average age of middle-aged people in France will rise from 39 to 43, the number of people over 60 may increase by 80%, the number of people over 75 will increase by two times, and the number of people over 85 will increase by more than four times. At present, the number of centenarians in France is 1.5 million, which is three times that of 40 years ago. Fifty years later, in 2060, it is estimated that the number of centenarians in France may reach 200,000. If social conditions improve beyond imagination, the total number of centenarians may even reach 380 thousand. This trend of population structure evolution will lead to the non-working population in France exceeding the working population.

The aging population in France will directly cause social problems such as labor shortage, weakened vitality and increased burden. To this end, France has taken targeted measures to deal with it from various aspects.

Under the welfare social security system of the trinity of the state, society and individual, we should encourage the labor participation rate of those who have the ability, extend the retirement age, implement the flexible retirement system, and try our best to postpone the "aging" period of the whole society. On the other hand, since 2007, France has formulated and implemented the "Sunset Red" plan to refine healthy life, attach importance to disease prevention, improve technical services, enrich social life, and further create and guarantee a happy environment for the elderly.

In order to play the role of "population reservoir", France has been implementing an active birth policy. A woman who has given birth to 1 child can receive a monthly allowance of 177 euros until the child reaches the age of 3. If two children are born within three years, the monthly allowance for the children will reach 600 euros until they are six years old. The government will take care of children until 18 years old, with a monthly allowance of 900 euros. First, the French government needs to spend 83 billion euros. In addition, the contractual cohabitation system in France legalized the birth outside marriage and promoted and maintained the steady growth of the population.

The migration from "talent" to "manpower" partly meets the demand of labor shortage in France. At present, the number of immigrants in France has exceeded 6 million, accounting for about 10% of the total population. Immigrants, especially skilled workers, mostly fill some jobs that France is unwilling to do but must do. According to the EU Convention on Migration, France is tightening immigration restrictions, changing passive "accepting immigrants" into active "selective immigrants" and absorbing "contributing immigrants" to a limited extent through the residence permit system, in order to alleviate the "bottleneck" problem of French economic development.

The United Nations Population Policy Department pointed out that the problem of aging has become one of the challenges faced by mankind in the 2 1 century, which will have a far-reaching impact on all fields of society. Experts believe that aging, like globalization, can change the future of the world. It is a strategic vision for France to take precautions against the problem of population aging from the perspective of development.