Migration: Born in France, but looking for a future in Africa

Menka Gomis was born in France but decided his future was in Senegal, where his parents were born.

The 39-year-old is one of a growing number of French Africans leaving France, blaming rising racism, discrimination and nationalism.

BBC Africa Eye investigated this phenomenon, dubbed a “silent exodus”, to understand why people like Mr Gomis are disillusioned with life in France.

This Parisian created a small travel agency that offers packages, mainly to Africa, aimed at those who wish to reconnect with their ancestral roots, and he now has an office in Senegal.

“I was born in France. I grew up in France and we know certain realities. There was a lot of racism. I was six years old and was called the “N” word at school. Every day,” Mr Gomis, who was educated in the southern port city of Marseille, told the BBC World Service.

“I may be French, but I also come from elsewhere.”

Mr. Gomis's mother moved to France when she was a baby and does not understand the reasons that led him to leave his family and friends to go to Senegal.

“I'm not just going for this African dream,” he explains, adding that it's a mix of responsibility to his parents' homeland and opportunity.

“Africa is like the Americas during the gold rush. I think this is the continent of the future. This is where there is everything to build, everything to develop.”

Ties between France and Senegal, a predominantly Muslim country and former French colony that was once a hub of the transatlantic slave trade, are old and complex.

A recent BBC Africa Eye investigation met migrants in Senegal willing to risk their lives on dangerous sea crossings to reach Europe.

Many of them end up in France where, according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), a record number of people requested asylum last year.

Around 142,500 people in total applied, and around a third of applications for protection were granted.

It is unclear how many of them choose to make the reverse journey to Africa, because French law prohibits collecting data on race, religion and ethnicity.

However, studies suggest that highly qualified French citizens of Muslim origin, often children of immigrants, emigrate quietly.

The people we met told us that attitudes towards immigration were hardening in France, with right-wing parties exerting greater influence.

Since their appointment last month, Prime Minister Michel Barnier and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have pledged to crack down on immigration, both legal and illegal, by pushing for the law to be changed at national level and European.

Fanta Guirassy has always lived in France and runs her own nursing practice in Villemomble, a Paris suburb, but she is also considering moving to Senegal, her mother's country of origin.

“Unfortunately, for several years in France, we have felt less and less safe. It’s a shame to say it, but it’s the reality,” this 34-year-old young woman explains to the BBC.

“Being a single mother and having a 15-year-old means you always have that little knot in your stomach. You are always afraid.”

She woke up to her son being stopped and searched by police while chatting with his friends in the street.

“As a mother, it’s quite traumatic. We see what happens on television and we see what happens to others.”

In June last year, riots broke out across France following the death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French national of Algerian origin, who was shot dead by police.

The investigation is still ongoing, but the riots shook the nation and reflected an undercurrent of anger that had been building for years over the way ethnic minorities are treated in France.

Return to the country – BBC Africa Eye investigates the “silent exodus” of French Africans who are leaving France permanently to reconnect with their roots.

A recent survey of black people in France found that 91% of respondents had experienced racial discrimination.

In the aftermath of the riots, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on France to tackle “problems of racial discrimination within its law enforcement agencies”.

The French foreign ministry rejected the criticism, saying: “Any accusation of systemic racism or discrimination by the police in France is completely unfounded. France and its police resolutely fight against racism and all forms of discrimination.”

However, according to statistics from the French Interior Ministry, racist crimes increased by a third last year, with more than 15,000 recorded incidents based on race, religion or ethnicity.

For Audrey Monzemba, a teacher of Congolese origin, these societal changes have “become very anxiety-inducing”.

Early one morning, we join her on her journey through a multicultural, working-class community in the suburbs of Paris.

With her little daughter, she travels by bus and train, but as she approaches the school where she works, she discreetly removes her scarf under the hood of her coat.

In secular France, wearing the hijab has become extremely controversial, and 20 years ago it was banned in all public schools. This is one of the reasons why Ms. Monzemba wants to leave France and settle in Senegal, where she has connections.

“I'm not saying that France isn't made for me. I'm simply saying that what I want is to be able to flourish in an environment that respects my faith and my values. I want to go to work without having to take off my veil,” declares this 35-year-old woman.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 French Muslims who left France to settle abroad suggests that this trend is booming.

It follows a spike in Islamophobia in the wake of the 2015 attacks, when Islamist shooters killed 130 people in various locations across Paris.

Moral panics around secularism and employment discrimination “are at the heart of this silent flight,” Olivier Esteves, one of the authors of the France report, You Love It But You Leave It (La France, you love her but you are leaving her).

“Ultimately, this emigration from France constitutes a real brain drain, because it is mainly highly educated French Muslims who decide to leave,” he adds.

Take the example of Fatoumata Sylla, 34, whose parents are from Senegal.

“When my father came here from Africa, he was looking for a better quality of life for his family in Africa. He always told us: 'Don't forget where you come from.'

This tourism software developer, who will move to Senegal next month, believes that by setting up a business in West Africa, she is showing that she has not forgotten her heritage – even if her brother Abdoul, born like her in Paris, is not convinced.

“I'm worried about her. I hope she gets through it, but I don't feel the need to reconnect with anything,” he explains to the BBC.

“My culture and my family are here. Africa is the continent of our ancestors. But it’s not really ours because we weren’t there.”

“I don’t think you’ll find an ancient culture or an imaginary Wakanda,” he adds, referring to the technologically advanced society featured in the Black Panther films and comics.

In Dakar, we met Salamata Konte, who founded the travel agency with Mr. Gomis, to find out what awaits French Africans who, like her, choose to settle in Senegal.

Ms. Konte swapped a well-paid job in the banking sector in Paris for the Senegalese capital.

When I arrived in Senegal three years ago, I was shocked to hear people call me “the Frenchwoman”,” says the 35-year-old young woman.

I said to myself: “Okay, I was born in France, but I’m Senegalese like you.” So at the beginning, you have this feeling of saying: “Damn, I was rejected in France, and now I come here and I'm also rejected here.”

But his advice is: “You have to come here with humility and that’s what I did.”

As for her experience as a businesswoman, she says it was “very difficult.”

“I often tell people that Senegalese men are misogynistic. They don’t like to hear it, but I think it’s true.”

“They have difficulty accepting that a woman can be CEO of a company, that a woman can sometimes give 'orders' to certain people, that I, as a woman, can say to a late driver : 'No, it's not normal for you to be late'.

“I think we need to prove ourselves a little more.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Gomis is enthusiastic in awaiting his Senegalese citizenship.

The travel agency is doing well and he says he is already working on his next venture – a dating app for Senegal.