The New York Times: This is how Muslims are silently fleeing France

The New York Times said that all the talk about the upcoming presidential election campaign in France is now focused on the issue of immigration, but it is the increasing and silent flight of Muslims from this European country that points to a deeper crisis in the country.

The newspaper indicated - in a report - that the three most prominent competitors of current President Emmanuel Macron in the elections next April, who are expected to represent nearly 50% of the votes according to opinion polls, are running anti-immigrant campaigns, which raises the fears of a nation facing a civilized threat from what it considers "invaded" by non-European nationals even though the actual volume of French immigration lags behind compared to most other European countries.

The newspaper adds that the problem that is addressed exclusively in this country is immigration, to the extent that France has lost for this reason in just years highly educated competencies who sought more dynamism and better opportunities elsewhere.

Among them, academic researchers assert, are a growing number of French Muslims who say discrimination was a "strong motivator" behind the decision to emigrate and that they felt compelled to leave the country due to a mixture of stereotypes, nagging questions about their security and a sense of not belonging.

The New York Times pointed out that this "escape" abroad was carried out without attention by politicians and the media, which is considered a failure by the French state, according to researchers, to provide a path of development for even the most qualified members of its largest minority who could have been invested as models for successful integration.

“These people end up contributing to the economy of Canada or Britain,” says Olivier Esteves, a professor at the University of Lille’s Center for Political Science, Public Law and Sociology who surveyed 900 French Muslim immigrants and in-depth interviews with 130 of them. “France is really shooting itself.”

French Muslims, estimated at 10% of the population, occupy such a "strange" position in the presidential election campaign that their voices are rarely heard, an indication not only of the lingering wounds caused by the 2015 and 2016 terrorist attacks that killed hundreds but also of France's long struggle over the Identity issues and its troubled relationship with its former colonies.

Racist expressions

They have been linked to crime or other social ills through racist expressions such as "regions not of France" used by Valerie Pecresse, the centre-right candidate who now follows far-right leader Marine Le Pen in second place behind Macron. They were also singled out for conviction by the far-right former TV analyst and candidate Eric Zemmour, who said employers had the right to deprive blacks and Arabs of jobs.

The New York Times notes that the content of this presidential race aroused dread in the hearts of Muslims who decided to leave while watching it from abroad, as asserted by Sabri Luwatta, a French Muslim writer of Algerian descent, and others who left the country, speaking with a mixture of anger and indifference to their motherland, where they are still They have strong family and social ties.

She concludes that the places where the departing Muslims of France settled, including Britain and the United States, are not a paradise free of discrimination against Muslims or other minorities, but those who were spoken to said that they felt greater opportunity and acceptance there, while some indicated that outside France they were not questioned. "For the first time" in the fact that they are French.