France spent €6.6 billion on immigration in 2019, handing out a total of 276,576 residency permits.
The Court of Auditors’ report states that while France receives far fewer migrants through legal means than countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, or Sweden per 1,000 inhabitants, it continues to receive high numbers of illegal migrants and asylum seekers.
In 2019, “154,620 asylum requests were registered, placing France in the high range of the countries of the European Union and its asylum system under heavy stress”, the report states.
“State expenditure linked to these policies is estimated at €6.57 billion [£5.77bn/$7.09bn] in 2019, or 1.41 per cent of gross expenditure in the general budget, up by around 48 per cent compared to 2012,” the report added, according to Le Figaro.
The report notes that increased asylum numbers account for one-third of the increase of the spending on immigration, while state medical aid for migrants contributes one-fifth of the growth.
France has seen historic numbers of asylum seekers year after year since the height of the 2015 migrant crisis.
The cost of unaccompanied minor migrants alone was reported to be at least €2 billion (£1.76bn/$2.16bn) per year, according to a report from September 2019. There are believed to be over 40,000 migrants who claim to be underage, reportedly costing around €50,000 (£44,000/$54,000) each per year.
The exact costs of immigration to France per year have been widely debated, with populist National Rally leader Marine Le Pen claiming the expenses could be as high as €70 billion (£61bn/$76bn) per year when other linked costs are factored in.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has put forward its own figure, saying that the cost is likely around €10 billion (£8.8bn/$10.8bn) per year in a report released in October 2019.
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