Amnesty International on Wednesday denounced France’s short-term residency system as a systemic violation of human rights that traps migrant workers in a cycle of discrimination, leaving them particularly vulnerable to labor exploitation, homelessness, and poverty.

The research, conducted between April 2024 and September 2025, utilized first-hand experiences from 27 workers of 16 different nationalities, as well as the views of 39 experts from various fields, including sociologists, lawyers, economists, heads of charities, trade union representatives, and journalists. Amnesty International recommended “[s]implifying administrative procedures, strengthening safeguards against failures, and, crucially, ensuring far greater security of residence status through a single and stable work permit.”

Senior director of research and advocacy at Amnesty International, Erika Guevara Rosas, stated:

This situation is as cruel as it is unacceptable. Thousands of migrant workers, primarily racialized individuals employed in key sectors of the French economy, including construction, domestic work, and cleaning are living permanently under the threat of having their residence permits refused or not renewed. Many have spent decades in France enduring this constant uncertainty.

The system permits migrant workers to reside in France for a maximum period of four years, but its reality is defined by a range of abuses, including wage theft, extended working hours, and cases of sexual and physical violence, all of which create a chain of insecurity and uncertainty. Additionally, the poor quality of the system, which is often affected by computer bugs and administrative delays, led to innocent people losing their salaries and social security benefits. This can result in them being unable to fulfil their basic needs. Migrant workers residing in France were also disproportionately affected by the pandemic, with many being left unable to access basic healthcare, a crisis that only seems to be exacerbated by this current development.

Restrictive conditions in obtaining a residence permit in France have become increasingly commonplace, owing to the different policies enacted by governments in recent years. Workers in France also have their lives in limbo, especially if their employers do not apply for a work permit on their behalf, a method that evades basic legal safeguards and allows employers to exploit their dependence on them, effectively using the threat of termination as a tool of control.

In the event that workers do file their applications to obtain their work permits on time and in accordance with the guidelines, it is not guaranteed that it would be processed timely. For instance, the 2024 French Immigration Bill has been criticized for delaying migrant’s social benefits and imposing stricter conditions for family reunification.