Muslim Professionals Leaving France Amid Rising Discrimination and Career Barriers

"We are suffocating in France," says a 33-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin to the Charente Libre website. Because of the "gloomy atmosphere" and the "daily humiliations" related to his surname and origins, this tech employee is about to emigrate to Southeast Asia with his pregnant wife, "to live in a more peaceful society where communities know how to live together." "They still ask me today what I’m doing in my residence," where he has lived for several years. "And it’s the same for my mother when she visits me. But my white-skinned wife has never had this question," he says. "This constant humiliation is all the more frustrating since I am a net contributor to this society by being among the high-income earners who pay full price," this MRE (Moroccan Resident Abroad) fumes.

Like him, a 30-year-old Franco-Algerian banker, who requested anonymity, also wants to flee the stigmatization for his religion, his name and his origin. He is about to take off for Dubai in June. "The climate in France has largely deteriorated. As a Muslim, we are being pointed at," he estimates. Holder of two master’s degrees, this son of an Algerian cleaning lady also believes he has hit a "glass ceiling" in his career in France. Same story with Adam. In France, "you have to make twice as much effort when you come from certain minorities," he says. He failed 50 job interviews for a consulting job, despite his qualifications and degrees. This thirty-something of North African origin now lives in Dubai. "I feel much better here than in France. [...] Here we are all equal. We can have an Indian, an Arab or a French person as our boss," he testifies. He will add that his religion is "more accepted" here.

In their book "France, you love it, but you leave it", Olivier Esteves, university professor (University of Lille), specialist in the English-speaking world, ethnicity and immigration; Alice Picard, agrégée teacher of economic and social sciences and associate researcher at the Arènes laboratory (UMR 6051) and Julien Talpin, CNRS research director (Ceraps, University of Lille), specialist in racism and commitment in working-class neighborhoods, highlight the Muslim talents who have decided to leave France due to discrimination, particularly in employment, and racism. This book investigates the silent exile of Muslim executives from France and points to a "French exception" that is "first and foremost institutional and political." "France stands out for its reluctance, even hostility, to recognize the specificity of Islamophobia as a form of racism, even though it is home to the largest Muslim group within the European Union," the authors of the book emphasize.