Hundreds of foreign-trained doctors working in France on Wednesday launched a three-day hunger strike, demanding job security and the right to stay in the country. The protest comes after the government failed to deliver on a promised extension of work permits, leaving many at risk of losing their jobs.
The doctors, who qualified outside the European Union, also plan to demonstrate outside the Health Ministry in Paris on Saturday.
Many work in medical fields facing staff shortages, including geriatrics, emergency medicine, visceral surgery and psychiatry.
They earn significantly less than their French counterparts – sometimes three times less – and are often employed on short-term contracts that renew every six months.
"We find ourselves in an unacceptable precarious situation," Abdelhalim Bensaïdi, a diabetologist who has worked at Nanterre Hospital for more than six years, told France Inter.
Three-quarters of foreign-trained doctors come from five Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Morocco and Lebanon. Many have been working in France for years, supporting a health system struggling with staff shortages.
France admits more foreign doctors than ever before, but inequalities remain
Unmet promises
In January 2024, the government pledged to extend work permits for foreign doctors who had failed a highly selective national exam required for them to be fully integrated into the French system.
More than a year and two governments later, that promise remains unfulfilled.
To gain full recognition of their qualifications in France, the doctors must pass knowledge verification tests. The process is highly competitive. In 2023, some 20,000 foreign-trained doctors applied for positions, but only 2,649 succeeded – a pass rate of just 13.5 percent.
During the most recent exam session, 20 percent of the positions that should have been awarded were not granted, a decision Bensaïdi described as "arbitrary".
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For many doctors with years of experience and proven clinical skills, the exam represents an unfair barrier to job security.
They say the uncertainty affects not just their careers but their personal lives, making it impossible to settle in France.
“Our entire family life depends on this exam and the renewal of our papers,” Nadir, an anaesthetist-reanimator earning €1,476 per month, told France 3 in January.
“How can we take out a loan or plan for the future when we don’t even know if we can stay?”
Essential workforce
Healthcare experts have emphasised the vital role these foreign doctors play in the French system.
"If the French hospital system hasn't collapsed, it's because a wave of foreign doctors has arrived during each crisis period," Louis-Vladimir Vandermeerschen, national delegate of the Public Health Managers Union, told left-leaning daily Libération.
President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged their contribution earlier this year, conceding they "sometimes single-handedly keep our care services running".
