Tackling French prejudice

TWO items in your paper France needs skin colour study and State will pay for French lessons (for Brits), prompt the wider question of, if not racism, the general prejudice against British jobseekers in France.

While (without implying criticism) Connexion has no dearth of stories showing happy couples enjoying a well-earned retirement and people adding the finishing touch to their chambre d'hôte, among small ads for gardeners, handymen and language services, those that have a workaday job seem inexistent, or at the very least invisible.

Even those who speak fluent French.

I've tested this in an informal way. Almost no one I know living outside a big city knows a Brit who is employed in a job: cashier, shop assistant, bank clerk etc.

If they are not the owner of their business, they are employed by a British owner.

“He's an estate agent” turns out to be that 'he' has a more or less informal arrangement with an agent immobilière to pass on British clients.

“She's a teacher” means 'she' does a few hours a week supply. Although Greta [government teaching body] and even prestigious semi-state establishments are happy to employ Brits as professeurs vacataires - they are not prepared to give them a contract as a teacher. They are good enough to do the job, just not good enough to have one.

The leaden question of qualifications raises its head here. Few Brits are likely to have French qualifications, and the process of equivalences is not easy.

This being said, even when one ticks all the boxes, this is by no means plain sailing.

Having ticked all the many boxes for a job as an assistant in a tourist office, including three years hands-on experience as a tour leader all over France, I was told that I was not even on the shortlist because “she's interviewing four girls”. This is the only box I couldn't tick, but would it have made a difference? I'm beginning to think not.

It is annoying that now my impôts locaux are going to pay someone in all probability less qualified than me to do a job I also applied for. Should I be surprised? It seems not.

Even high-flying French finance graduates with a non-French sounding name or non-white looking skin find it easier to get a banking job in London than in Paris.

When asked if she knows any Brits with regular jobs in the area, or if others are in my situation, my contact at the ANPE [job centre] blocks the question. I’m sure if she had positive examples, she would be waving them at me.

As someone pacsed with a middle management level civil servant, both homeowners with no liquid assets at our disposal, moving is not a ready option.

I'm probably dreaming to think I could get a job in Britain at 49, having been out of the country for 16 years. We're great when we're buying houses and spending in DIY stores, less great when serving in shops.