Maghrebi Doctors in France Consider Exodus Amid Rising Far-Right Politics

"We are not already spoiled here, but if we have (Jordan) Bardella as Prime Minister, it will be dire. They play on the fear of the other," said Tasnime Labiedh, 33, to Reuters. Arrived in France in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic for her medical internship, this Tunisian now works as a microbiologist with a lower salary than her French counterparts. But she is considering settling in Switzerland. This is also the decision taken by six of the 11 Maghrebi-origin doctors interviewed by the news agency. One doctor emigrated to Canada a month ago.

The departure of Maghrebi doctors will not be without consequences for access to healthcare in France. The country has only 3.17 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, and suffers from a stronger shortage of doctors among OECD countries after Luxembourg. "People don’t have a general practitioner, so they come here for a cold, for a medical certificate to take sick leave," explained Leila Elamrani, an emergency physician who came from Morocco to France in 2004. She who welcomes patients from neighboring regions will add: "This, combined with the aging of the population and the lack of resources, creates a huge disorder." Hicham Benaissa, a sociologist at the CNRS, points to an "immense hypocrisy". "The far right is thriving in France on the issue of immigration, presenting migrants as a problem. But if tomorrow the migrants stopped working, it is our entire social and economic system that would be paralyzed," he said.

To support his argument, he relies on a study conducted with 350 North African doctors in France, the results of which will be published next year. Benaissa found that 75% of doctors, including those trained abroad and those born in France, were considering emigrating. Data from the National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM) specify that in 2023, 29,238 doctors practicing in France were trained outside the EU, an increase of 90.5% compared to 2010, or about 7% of the total workforce, and that Maghrebi doctors represent more than half of them.

Even the assurances given by Bardella last month do not convince Maghrebi doctors. "Our compatriots of foreign nationality or origin who work, pay their taxes, respect the law and love our country have nothing to fear," he assured. According to Widad Abdi, a doctor and representative of the SNPADHUE, the main union of INPADHUE (Intersyndicale des Praticiens à Diplôme Hors Union Européenne), the politicians are not addressing the structural problems. "Whether they are foreigners or not, more and more doctors are leaving. The health system does not encourage them to stay: the working conditions, the salaries, the schedules, the number of patients has increased and the number of doctors has decreased," he laments.