Muslim professionals left “hostile” France in silent brain drain

After being rejected for around 50 interviews for consulting jobs in France despite his extensive qualifications, Muslim Business School graduate Adam packed his bags and moved to a new life in Dubai.

“I feel much better here than in France,” the 32-year-old, of North African origin, told AFP.

“We are all equal. You can have a boss who is Indian, Arab or French,” he said.

“My religion is more accepted.”

According to a new study, highly qualified French citizens from Muslim backgrounds, often the children of immigrants, are leaving France in a quiet brain drain, seeking a new start abroad in cities such as London, New York, Montreal or Dubai.

The authors of the book “France, you love it, but you leave it”, published last month, said it was difficult to estimate exactly how many.

But they found that 71 percent of the more than 1,000 people who responded to their online survey left in part because of racism and discrimination.

Adam, who asked that his surname not be used, told AFP that his new job in the United Arab Emirates had given him a new perspective.

In France “you have to work twice as hard when you come from certain minorities,” he said.

He said he was “extremely grateful” for his French education and missed his friends, family and the rich cultural life of the country where he grew up.

But he said he was glad to have shrugged off “Islamophobia” and “systemic racism”, meaning he was stopped by police without reason.

– “Humbling” –

France has long been a country of immigration, including from its former colonies in North and West Africa.

But today, descendants of Muslim immigrants who came to France in search of a better future say they are living in an increasingly hostile environment, especially after the 2015 Islamic State jihadist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people .

They say France’s particular form of secularism, which bans all religious symbols in public schools, including headscarves and long robes, appears to focus disproportionately on the dress of Muslim women.

Another French Muslim, a 33-year-old technical employee of Moroccan origin, told AFP that he and his pregnant wife planned to emigrate to a “more peaceful society” in Southeast Asia.

He said he would miss France’s “sublime” cuisine and the queues outside bakeries.

But “we’re suffocating in France,” said the business school graduate with a five-figure monthly salary.

He described a desire to leave “this ambient darkness” where television news channels seem to target all Muslims as scapegoats.

The tech worker, who moved to Paris after growing up in its lower-income suburbs, said he has lived in the same block for two years.

“But they keep asking me what I’m doing in my building,” he said.

“It’s so humbling.”

“This constant humiliation is all the more frustrating as I make a very honest contribution to this society as someone with a high income who pays a lot of tax,” he added.

– “Second class citizens” –

A 1978 French law prohibits the collection of data on a person’s race, ethnicity or religion, making it difficult to obtain comprehensive statistics on discrimination.

But a young person “perceived as black or Arab” is 20 times more likely to face an identity check than the rest of the population, the French human rights ombudsman found in 2017.

The Inequalities Observatory says racism is on the decline in France, with 60% of French saying they are “not racist at all”.

But still, he adds, a candidate with a French name is 50 percent more likely to be called by an employer than one from North Africa.

A third professional, a 30-year-old French-Algerian with two master’s degrees from top schools, told AFP he was leaving in June for a job in Dubai because France had become “complicated”.

The investment banker, the son of an Algerian cleaner who grew up in Paris, said he loved his job but was beginning to feel he had hit a “glass ceiling”.

He also said he felt French politics had shifted to the right in recent years.

“The atmosphere in France has really deteriorated,” he said, alluding to some experts who equate all people in his background with extremists or troublemakers in housing estates.

“Muslims are clearly second-class citizens,” he said.

Adam, the consultant, said the emigration of more privileged French Muslims was only the “tip of the iceberg”.

“When we see France today, we are devastated,” he said.

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