Stratifying Non-EU Workers: The Vague and Narrowing Boundaries of the Immigration Category of "Talent" (France, 2006-2024)

Abstract

Over the 21st century, "talent" has become an immigration category in France (as elsewhere, like has in the UK), providing the basis for the preferential legal treatment of certain categories of non-EU foreign workers, whose mobility is facilitated due to their high desirability. This vague immigration category, targeting exclusively workers belonging to upper socio-professional categories, now appears to be relatively consistent in terms of class and social stratification. However, a socio-historical study of the legislative dossiers of the 2006 and 2016 French laws introducing the "Skills and Talents" and "Talent Passport" residence permits respectively, complemented by a mixed-methods analysis of the deliberations of the Skills and Talents National Committee (2007-2014), online governmental and legal archives, and interviews with civil servants, leads to the observation that the (relative) social homogeneity of the category was not a foregone conclusion. This article shows how a privileged foreign population has been constructed in both senses of the term, as the debates surrounding the residence permits have gradually aligned the population targeted by this preferential policy with a population favored in terms of cultural and/or economic capital.