Papers produced by the French unemployed (4)
I believe the answer is:
idle
'unemployed' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'papers produced by the french' is the wordplay.
'papers' becomes 'ID' (identifying documents are one's 'papers').
'produced by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'id'+'le'='IDLE'
(Other definitions for idle that I've seen before include "Dormant" , "Workshy" , "goalless" , "Slothful" , "Loaf" .)