France

The program intends to foster linkages between migration issues and private sector development, with a specific focus on financial services. Until now, many activities to foster diaspora investment in CoO have focused on capacity building of relevant state institutions and non financial services for migrant entrepreneurs. A major component of this programme is dedicated support the development of financial services that take into account the needs and specificities of diaspora members (remittances transfer, access to loans, savings products).

Following requests from migrant associations in France to be considered as development actors, the French government has provided support for empowerment and capacity building of diaspora organizations.

This has led to the creation in 2002 of a national platform of more than 700 migrant association that undertake development activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Maghreb, South east Asia, the Caribbean and the Indian ocean.

The FORIM is now widely recognized as an important actor in the migration and development field, including at EU and international level.

The SenExpertise program contains a database of highly skilled Senegalese residing in France who desire to offer their expertise to Senegalese institutions (administration, programs, etc). The program finances short missions that help to build capacities of Senegalese institutions or organizations. This program is financed under the French migration agreement.

The main goal of the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is to increase access to finance for small and medium enterprises – which is especially relevant for returning migrants. The AGF’s key mandate is to assist financial institutions to increase their financing to African Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) through the provision of partial financial guarantees and capacity development assistance. AGF’s products and services provide financial institutions with the means which they can leverage in bringing their African SME financing interventions to the required scale.

The EU Immigration Portal serves as a first point of entry to reliable, practical and up-to-date information on immigration issues. It provides useful basic information written in user-friendly language and gives rapid and direct access to relevant external websites for further information. In concrete terms, the portal helps potential migrants to:

- Better understand the EU admission rules and procedures;

- Identify job and study opportunities;

- Find information on the rights of non-EU citizens who are in the EU;

This website offers both comparison of remittance costs on 26 corridors from France, and editorial space for diaspora to communicate on their activities and exchange ideas on the blog.

It has contributed to fostering competition between remittance operators through increased transparency and information. It is also widely used by diaspora members as a platform to share information. 

The French Development Agency intends to promote a specific approach of migration, both internal and international. Its goal is to avoid developing specific migration projects and instead to mainstream migration issues into other development sectors: private sector development; education and employment; health; environment and climate change; urban development; rural development and food security.

Remittances from migrants are a major source of financing for the economies of developing countries and of the recipient populations. They are of great benefit to large segments of the population which, without these resources, would live in conditions of abject poverty. Consequently, remittance flows tend to remain stable even when the migrants’ countries of residence are beset by economic and financial crisis. They seem to be less volatile than official development assistance and foreign direct investment.

This bilateral program aims to facilitate actions undertaken by Senegalese diaspora members living in France for the economic and social development of their country of origin. It has four main components:

The French Government has created a program that is specifically responsible for all migration issues. Its creation responds to a triple challenge:

• - to manage migration by organizing channels for regular migration and to fight against irregular migration;
• - to promote labour migrants mobility, and;
• - to promote development in the countries of origin.