The Directorate-General for Foreigners in France (DGEF) kicked off its sixth “Semaine de l’intégration” on 5 October 2026. Running nationwide until 9 October, the initiative mobilises prefectures, NGOs and employers to stage more than 900 events—from language-immersion workshops in Lyon to CV clinics in Marseille—aimed at helping first-year residence-permit holders settle and enter the labour market. Integration Week has grown steadily since its 2021 launch; last year’s edition attracted 50,000 participants. This year the focus is on employment: the Interior Ministry is piloting a fast-track skills-recognition portal so that qualified newcomers can obtain equivalency certificates within four weeks, down from the current median of five months. French employers, facing record labour shortages in IT and health care, welcome the move. Capgemini says it will use the portal to onboard 120 Tunisian software engineers hired under the Talent Passport scheme by December. At the same time, the ministry is publicising the new civic-knowledge exam that became mandatory on 1 January 2026 for multi-year residence permits, reminding HR teams to schedule exam sessions early in assignment timelines. For global-mobility practitioners, Integration Week is a prime networking window: several chambers of commerce are hosting briefings on work-permit compliance and the upcoming Entry/Exit System. Companies sponsoring events can earn CSR credits and positive media visibility, while foreign assignees gain practical guidance on housing, banking and schooling. Observers note that the programme also serves a political purpose, showcasing the government’s ‘balanced’ immigration agenda at a time when a new control-and-integration bill is moving through Parliament. Whether the pilot portal will become permanent depends on funding in the 2027 budget cycle, but early adopters report significant administrative time savings.
