THIS Wednesday Marine Fretel, an intelligent, well-educated young French
woman, will board a train to London. She has let her Paris flat, packed a
large suitcase and said goodbye to family and friends.
She does not expect to return. Fretel is one of the “Eurostar generation” of
French professionals fleeing to London and other cities abroad in the hope
of better careers in a land of opportunity.
The farewell parties held each week in Paris are multiplying, and although the
government puts a brave face on the exodus, this rush for the exit is an
embarrassing symptom of chronic French woes as the country prepares to pick
its new president.
A dearth of jobs in France, the world’s fifth largest economy, has turned
London, less than three hours from Paris by Eurostar, into an eldorado for
young professionals such as Fretel. Friends in London have told her that the
British capital, unlike the one she is leaving behind, is a “city of
dreams”.
“In France everything is stagnating, all doors are closed; in London, though,
they say all possibilities are open,” said Fretel, a fluent English speaker
who is planning to stay with a cousin in Kentish Town until she finds the
job of her dreams, preferably in the recording industry, of which she has
experience.
With a degree in communications from the Sorbonne, Fretel may work as a
waitress to make money until she receives the right offer. In France she has
had only part-time jobs for the past three years,the last of which was in a
secondhand bookshop.
“I sent out hundreds of CVs,” she said, “and all I got was ‘Sorry, we’re not
hiring’. In London I’ve already got several interviews lined up in the music
industry. I’m sure I will succeed.”
Her description of a faltering, moribund France replacing Germany as the “sick
man” of Europe has become a central theme of the election battle between
Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative, and the Socialist party’s Ségolène Royal.
While Europe’s economic growth is accelerating, France’s is not. Its
unemployment rate of 8.8% is among the highest in the European Union. The
problem is particularly acute among under 25-year-olds, one fifth of whom
are without a job.
This has produced a sense of social exclusion, particularly among youths of
immigrant origin, and all of the politicians agree that something must be
done to avoid a repeat of the rioting that shamed the proud nation in 2005.
But what?
Both candidates have lamented the “immobility”, promising to put the country
back on its feet by addressing issues that have fuelled the biggest
migration of French people since persecuted Huguenot Protestants fled France
in the 16th and 17th centuries.
An estimated 300,000 French citizens live in Britain, which has the third
largest expatriate community after Switzerland and America. There is
compensation for France, perhaps, in the influx of older British people who
come not to make their fortune in France but to spend it.
But given its current plight, France needs the young and dynamic more than
ever and the candidates have promised various measures for luring them back.
Royal, the first woman with a chance of becoming president, proposes £7,000
interest-free loans to aspiring entrepreneurs. She wants to create 500,000
state-funded jobs to get young people into the workforce.
For French exiles, however, the 52-year-old Sarkozy seems the candidate more
likely to institute reforms to revive the French job market, judging by the
election result overseas. The 40% of French expatriate voters in Britain who
backed Sarkozy in the first round of voting was higher than the national
figure of 31%, as was the 49% he won in America.
Saying that the French must work more if they want to earn more, Sarkozy, a
Hungarian immigrant’s son who sold ice creams to help finance his university
studies, has made jobs a big part of his campaign, attacking the 35-hour
week and holding up as a model the dynamism of les rosbifs.
“In England,” he said on Tuesday night in a speech in Rouen, “nobody can
refuse more than two job offers consecutively [and keep their benefits]. If
you haven’t got a job after three months, a special counsellor comes along
and asks, ‘How is this possible?’ ” In order to encourage more work, Sarkozy
has proposed that companies should be excused from paying additional “social
charges” on hours worked on top of the weekly quota. Workers should not pay
income tax on extra hours, he says.
Yet even Sarkozy, a diminutive figure with a hyperactive personality, has
toned down his talk about the need for “rupture” with the past for fear of
alienating an electorate whose qualms about capitalism were summed up in an
American study in 2005 which showed that only 36% of French people believed
the free market to be the best system.
Any effort to reform rigid employment rules that make it virtually impossible
to lay off workers without lengthy legal battles and punitive sanctions was
expected to provoke the same sort of widespread protest that put paid to a
recent government proposal enabling companies to sack workers within the
first two years of a job.
The cost of hiring - and firing - workers has driven countless French
entrepreneurs across the Channel, among them Olivier Cadic, 45, who set up a
successful electronics company in Ash-ford, Kent, a decade ago.
“I’ve seen the word liberty written on lots of French monuments but I had to
come to England to actually experience it,” he said last week.
“I love my country, but I don’t have to live there. In France there’s too much
taxes, social charges and red tape. Over here you can set up a company in a
day. In France it is an incredible ordeal.”
In Testimony, his bestselling book, Sarkozy lamented the fact that even
Judith, his stepdaughter, had been obliged to seek work in London because of
the shortage of jobs at home. “Britain ceaselessly sucks in thousands of
young French people . . . who find it easier to succeed there than at home.
How shameful is it that a young person wanting to get on is obliged to
leave?”
Cadic was in the front row in January when Sarkozy urged supporters at a
campaign rally in London to come home. “We need your work, your
intelligence, your imagination and your enthusiasm,” he told some 2,500
escapees, adding: “All over the world I want the French to be proud again.”
He promised that if elected, “everything will become possible”.
Cadic, although a supporter, believed Sarkozy was being optimistic. “If he
wins, it will take a long time for him to change mentalities,” he said.
Whatever the case, Cadic is not planning to return to his homeland any time
soon. Having sold his electronics company for a price he would never have
dreamt of a decade ago, he has set up another company that pub-lishes French
and Belgian comic strips translated into English.
Fretel, 34, who has never visited Britain before, is just as doubtful about
Sarkozy’s chances of reforming France. She voted for Royal for fear that
Sarkozy’s reform efforts would provoke mayhem and rioting. “If he wins, I’ll
be happy that I am living in London, even if I’m the only one cheering for
Royal,” she said.
No French person abroad can claim to be lonely, however. An estimated 2.2m
French citizens, about 4% of the population, live overseas. According to the
French government, the number registering with French consulates has risen
by 40% since 1995.
While many wealthy people flee France for Switzerland or Belgium in search of
less punitive tax regimes, the average French expatriate in Britain is aged
just 30. Although some end up disappointed, the newly arrived often sound
amazed at how easy it is to find a job this side of the Channel.
Vladimir Cordier, a French graduate, found work within five days of arriving
at Waterloo on his one-way Eurostar ticket. He was so moved by the
experience that he wrote a book about it in 2005 called At Last a Job!
Some French commentators like to laugh off the mass departures as simply an
example of the French doing what they enjoy best: exploring the world.
“The French conquest of the world” was how the conservative newspaper Le
Figaro optimistically described the great exodus, which it linked with
France’s age-old instinct to civilise other countries.
Even so, the government is worried about a brain drain and has quietly
introduced programmes to encourage émigrés to return, including cash
incentives for talented scientists, fearing that the country, whose 2%
growth last year was well behind the 2.7% of the eurozone, could fall even
further behind.
It will take much more profound change, however, to bring home people like
Olivier Ber-trand, a 32-year-old banker.
“In France it is all to do with connections, who you know,” he said. “That is
how people get jobs. Here the only thing that matters is talent. Britain is
much more of a meritocracy. That’s what is needed in France.”
Bwahahahahaha! Even the French hate the France!
mjolnir, Spokane,
"I just hope the French don't come to the United States. We don't like your arrogance!"
Sorry, Fred, but the biggest French community overseas is in the USA, with 300.000 French linving there.
*has fond memories of growing up in Larchmont, NY and of attending there the French American school*
Froggie, Paris,
it is interesting for an american to read the various views posted by those on both sides of the channel. obviously, you do not yet understand what EEC means. you are now one nation not a bunch of small countries speaking different languages . look at it this way : immigration from france to england is much like moving from new york to texas or california . young people in this country have been doing it for hundreds of years to find better jobs and life styles.
IRONY: NOW A LOT OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE LEAVING FOR AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. REASON: POLITICS
MICKEY , houston , texas usa
I just hope the French don't come to the United States. We don't like your arrogance!
Fred, Washington, DC, US
"A large proportion of the immigrant minority have made themselves completely unemployable" - comments Michael. Maybe thats true of first generation immigrants but among those coming across the Channel from France are well educated second or third generation children of immigrants looking for jobs. Many have said that at least here in the U.K. they face less discrimination with employers more interested in their skills and not the colour of their skin. Its hard enough for a young person to get a job in France but if you are of north African origin its twice as hard. This fact alone shows why the U.K. ecomony is doing well, it relies on talent and not having the right connections as stated by one of the comments.
N Khan, London,
The real message of migrations, whether for work or ambience, is of the power of market solutions to embedded distortions.
With the individuals' availability of choice from the global smorgasbord of lifestyle and political offerings enabling a mix’n match of desired ingredients, (subject to appropriate change of location) there’s less need for change as such in many countries.
Maybe this is the future for politics. When the offering doesn’t suit, decline it, and move on. And to someplace else where things are done more to one’s taste, rather than trying to change the system.
Anyway, rapid change can lead to disastrous mistakes. Turnkey readymade solutions better fit today’s ‘want it now’ ethos.
dr venables preller, Warminster, UK
everyone has to try socialism at least once.....uk will get there, pretty much ruined every country that has succumb.....don't worry the us is catching up and soon will find itself in similar straights.
aaron, mebane, nc usa
Things must be absolutely desperate if the young French people who come to England think they have found Nirvana. I can only assume they all end up working in banking the City which enables them to be able to afford to live here. What is particularly ironic is that whilst the young French Professionals are flocking here in droves, the young English Professionals are fleeing for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US. All this shows is that those European countries who advocate the big government and State intervention policies are ultimately doomed. No wonder India, China and Brazil will be the super economies of the future along with the US. If you're just starting your career and have ambition get into one of these countries before the flood starts.
Stephanie, London, England
Helene, why does someone always have to patronise jobs like cleaners / waiters. You think Ramsey's waiters are not qualified .Maybe they are just uptight, patronising ,overqualified ,i think i,m super smart looking for that big break in to the " please file this" job.
Broaden your skills!!!!
I agree with Michael clarke, i moved to france dec2005. i attended a language class run by the job service (anpe). It was free and fitted around my job. Out of the class of 28, 27 were of north african origin. 20 were woman who had never worked but had been in france for more than four years, out of 6 men only 2 had worked in the last year the other four were clearly not intererested in anything except mobile phones. During a discussion i asked what people did or would like to do. No aspiration or goals at all. All of these people had been in france for more than 2 years yet do not want to intergrate. They were happy for the social assistance of course. Even sarko can,t help them.
james, Ruoms, France
Yes it is time for the French people to start to wake up.
They have lived for too long in a world that does not exist.
They still think they that the government will provide good state pensions to everyone forever, that the farmers should keep getting their big fat subsidies, that the state universities should keep producing masses of redundant professionals. That the markets should be tamed, the taxes raised, the government enlarged, the industrial complexes bailed out of their un- competitiveness (read Airbus), while they keep singing La Marseillaise, about freedoms they have long lost, at the 14th of July parades....
My great grand father came in the 1890s from somewhere in the French basque region, possibly escaping from lack of work and opportunities?, arrived in Buenos Aires, he came and worked hard, Argentina grew. with him and became a better place. That is, until the ideas of state interventionism destroyed its present and future. Will France do follow the same path ?
Carlos Sansoulet, Toronto, Canada
It's made in China; but everywhere else it is too.
Rasiah Temujin, UK, France
Sadly, for France, I don’t see Sarkozy being able to push through the needed reformes if he gets elected. For France, the best solucion would be to elect Ms Royal president of France, after 5 years of Ms Royal even the all powerfull French unions & civil servants will see the need for sweeping reforms. Sarkozy would then be elected with a mandate for change, much like Margeret Thacher was.
db, Ibiza, Spain
The rats are leaving and they are welcome to join the rat race in London. As usual, articles speak only of the tiny minority of the educated that will work for the City, but most other so called "expatriates" (real expatriates have all accomodations paid for by their company) are in menial jobs and in London for the sense of adventure. I have yet to see an article about how Geneva is a brain drain on France though if you look at the figures, you should say so.
Most of these people will come back as soon as they'll start a family since London is impossible to live in with a family, having enjoyed their youth, explored the world, lived to work and achieved something. But as soon as they settle down, 90% of them suddenly feel the urge of going back... The rat race is interesting only as long as you are a rat in your prime, after that, the sclerotic France seems suddenly more welcoming... I wonder why...
Jon Jon, Toyko, Japan
One of the proposals by Sarko is to "free" the railways, denationalising everything and becoming a Blairite Thatcher. Those who have watched the film The Navigators realised they will end up with poorly maintained "public services" and privatised utilities. Voters should be reminded of the catalogue of erros that arrive when the economy is "liberated" to a market economy such as ours.
Jane Fleming, Peterborough, United Kingdom
I do agree that it's much easier to find a job over here than in France. And I do mean a qualified job, not a job as a cleaner/waitress!
I spent several months looking for a clerical position in France: French employers always told me that I was 'overqualified' (because my academic record is... too good!) and simultaneously questioned my IT skills because I didn't attend a vocational secretarial school for people with middling baccalaureat results. Not to mention the ones who were looking for a secretary + playmate.
Here I found work within 3 weeks: the pay is higher than that at my last firm in France; the responsibilities and the workload should be less (I stood in for my boss whenever he was absent or didn't feel like working); and I should be able to work myself up, unlike in my previous jobs in France, where colleagues and employers tried to drum into me that my future lay in having babies.
Helene, Paris,
"Cadic is not planning to return to his homeland any time soon. Having sold his electronics company for a price he would never have dreamt of a decade ago, he has set up another company "
So what is exactly her problem with France? She did a company, she took big money out of it, and then complains this is not possible in France? does it make sens?
She'd rather ask herself the true reasons : just like all french young people, she leaves in fantasy. She believes what she reads and not what she experiences. She was told she could not do anything in France, so she just believes it eventhough her own life proves the opposite
dominique, Paris/France,
A large proportion of the immigrant minority have made themselves completely unemployable, so the unemployment statistics are meaningless. There are huge numbers of people who have no intention of working.
michael clarke, london, uk
I retired to deepest rural France about 3 years ago. I hope Sarko wins this election because it is abundantly obvious to me that France is about as dynamic as an old lady taking tea with her old friends in her 1950's style front room. France is wasting its young and its talent having brainwashed the population with the notion that the state will provide. Look in the supermarket and check where everything they are selling except food is made. It ain't France and that's for sure. For any French entrepreneur or university graduate it must be like trying to run a race with your feet tied together by the organisers. Sego is in dreamland with her 'state interventionist' policies, such as they are. Sarko needs to get in and do what Thatcher did to the economy and the unions. It won't be easy, but I doubt that Blair and Brown would have had such a free run for the past 10 years if Thatcher hadn't done what she did. If it is really a good country to be young in why are the young leaving?
Ian Olive, Moutardon, France
The usual load of tosh - it's always young professionals who never will know what hard work is - its never young factory workers or young machine tool fitters etc. It's always young professionals. We've got enough of our own cheating solicitors and lawyers financiers and barristers.
The only reason it is easy to get some jobs or positions as young professionals like to call them is that nothing is ever checked out, such as character or criminal records. There are lots of doctors who have never qualified but checking them out would take some kind of dare I say "French Burocracy*.
Give us all a rest from this "meritocracy* rubbish and get back to worrying why your house's value has not doubled this week.
Meritocracy when youth has flown is just an empty word.
That's why all the old pros and working class prefer France.
Fred, Dubai, Dubai
Am finally leaving France myself too! And won't be coming back. That said, it's no better or worse than any other European country.
I certainly would'nt dream of living in that over-priced, over-policed and over-populated little island some people call Great britain!
Whatever happens in the next 5 years, it will take at least two presidential terms to reform this country.
Who knows which way things will go.
rock_on, paris, france
Oh I really like this article, so refreshing to hear the comments of the ones who ' got away'.
Mainly the young who have spotted that France is not perfect at everything, unlike the older unenterprising & none travelling French.
I wish all of the adventurers well, the one truly noticeable & overriding difference they will find in England , is flexibility !.
Here in France everything is rigid & appears to be set in concrete !
England may have her faults , but it's only when you leave & live in another country you realise her qualities.
The new emigrants will hopefully kill the myth & spread the word that the Brits can cook.!!!
Maggie Millington, Brittany, France