There has been practically full employment since the liberation. This. together with the rise in productivity through better equipment. and an increase in the number of working hours to 46 as against 39 per week before the war. has enabled France to attain her high level of production. To remedy the manpower shortage. the French Government took measures that allowed for an increase in immigration of laborers. During 1957. 140.000 foreign workers migrated to France. chiefly from Italy. The chapter on agricultural progress contradicts the traditional picture of the French farmer as an ultraconservative individualist clinging to obsolete methods. resisting technical advances and practicing diversified farming on a midgetsized plot.
Identified stereotypes
French farmer is an ultraconservative individualist clinging to obsolete methods.