They deplore the rise of racism and Islamophobia which no longer allows them to continue to live peacefully in France. Algerians tell MEE they are planning in the short term on the other side of the Mediterranean
Souad is preparing to move to Algiers in a year. The 45-year-old Franco-Algerian, legal assistant in Lyon, chose her parents’ country to start a new life with her 12-year-old son.
“The bad atmosphere in France is pushing me a little towards the exit. Like all children of immigrants, I always experienced racism and discrimination, but it was not on the same scale as today. It becomes relentlessness,” she confided to Middle East Eye, adding that she no longer wanted to live “in a society that rejects her.”
“I have reached a stage where I no longer find this normal. I’m getting enough. »
On social networks, other Algerians, born or raised in France, rather young but sometimes old, women and men, married, with children, or single, display the same desire to cross the Mediterranean for a one-way trip.
“I no longer feel at home in France. Despite my studies and my long career in teaching, I am constantly brought back to my origins”
– Broussard, mathematics teacher in Paris
They engage in Facebook groups like “ Succeed in your hijra to Algeria ” or “ Return to live in Algeria ”, deploring, like Souad, the rise of xenophobia.
Despite a “chronic under-reporting” of Islamophobic acts in France, to use the words of Sihem Zine, head of the association Action Droits des Musulmans (ADM), since the start of a new cycle in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, On October 7, law enforcement noted “ an increase ” in anti-Muslim acts in the country, Gérald Darmanin told the newspaper Ouest France. In mid-November 2023, the Ministry of the Interior recorded “more than 140 acts since the start of the year”.
“I no longer feel at home in France. Despite my studies and my long career in teaching, I am constantly brought back to my origins,” laments Boussad, a mathematics teacher in a Parisian high school. “Racism has become uninhibited. It pours out on television screens all day long. »
Retirement in Kabylia
In two years, the 63-year-old father will finally retire and plans to settle with his wife in Maâtkas, in Kabylia, on his parents’ property.
“This house was the only place where my father truly felt at home, among his family. When I was young, I didn’t understand his stubbornness in wanting to build it even though we lived in an HLM in France. But I was able to measure with age the weight of the exclusion he suffered, the little house painter whom everyone called by his first name, Mohamed, and his ardent desire to return to his country. says the teacher.
For the first generations of immigrants, the prospect of returning to their native country was an essential element of the migratory project. As Algerian sociologist Abelmalek Sayad pointed out in his book La Double Absence, Algerian immigrant workers experienced their presence in France as a “necessary exile” while hoping to one day return home.
“When we were little and my father took us to Algeria for the holidays in El Kseur, near Béjaïa, he never stopped praising the beauty of the country and secretly nourished the dream of acquiring a pied-à-terre where we could all live forever. But his project never came to fruition. With his job as a handler, he barely earned enough to meet our needs,” Bachir, a 33-year-old truck driver from Roubaix (North), tells MEE.
Today, as if to take revenge, the Franco-Algerian has decided to take the plunge himself with his own family. “I am taking the same path as my father 40 years ago, but in the opposite direction! “, he jokes.
On a more serious tone, the Roubaisian points out a climate of hatred against foreigners and Muslims, which makes France “unlivable”.
“My wish is that we can, as a family, exercise our faith freely, without being accused of separatists and Salafists”
– Bachir, heavy goods vehicle driver in Roubaix
“I want my two daughters to grow up in a society that does not push them to the margins because of their name, their skin color, and their religion. My wish is that we can, as a family, exercise our faith freely, without being accused of being separatists and Salafists,” he confides.
To prepare for their departure for Algeria, the young father seeks information from his acquaintances on both sides of the Mediterranean. For example, he aspires to open a transport company but he does not yet know the nature of the steps to create a business.
Bachir also is still determining whether he will live in El Kseur, his parent’s hometown in northeastern Algeria, or whether he should choose a larger town with better job opportunities.
“The right decision”
For Souad, the prospects are a little clearer. In October 2023, she made a prospecting trip to Algiers with one of her brothers – who also plans to live in Algeria.
The housing problem has already been resolved because she will initially occupy, with her son, the house that her parents built in the Algerian capital, in Bouzaréah. Later, the Lyonnaise aims to acquire real estate in Oran (west). “If all goes well, we will live for the long term in this city about which I have heard the greatest things,” she comments.
On a professional level, Souad will initially continue to practice his profession remotely, then plan to look for a job or retrain.
“I had the idea of creating a call center. But it didn’t work. Too much administrative hassle,” she reveals without admitting to being discouraged.
“I know how Algeria works, that bureaucracy represents a real obstacle to the initiative. During my last trip, a bank officer refused to open an account for me because he considered that my passport was not a valid form of identification, although one of his colleagues did so without problem the next day with his passport. »
The legal assistant is also worried about her son’s schooling. The Algerian state has prohibited private schools from teaching the French program, and she wonders how it will be integrated into an Algerian school where lessons are taught in Arabic.
“Neither he nor I speak Arabic fluently. When we arrive, for sure, there will be a lot of difficulties. The codes are not the same. But in the end, we will gain the serenity and peace that we no longer have in France,” she thinks.
“When we arrive, for sure, there will be a lot of difficulties. The codes are not the same. But in the end, we will gain the serenity and peace that we no longer have in France”
– Souad, legal assistant in Lyon
Lamia is an English teacher. She left her hometown of Douai (Hauts-de-France) by marrying an Algerian from Mostaganem (west) twelve years ago, where she lives today. And she does not regret her choice.
“I realize, every time I come back to France, that I made the right decision. Instead of integrating immigrants and their children into the national community, the state ostracizes them with shameful laws and political practices. I would never have found my place in France if I had stayed, especially with my veil,” she told MEE in a telephone conversation.
Officially, there are no statistics on the number of Franco-Algerians who have opted for Algeria as their country of residence. These arrivals may also seem anecdotal and marginal compared to the scale of the phenomenon of migration of Algerians towards Europe.
President Tebboune regularly emphasizes his desire to involve the diaspora, “an integral part of the national societal fabric”, in the development of the country. Measures have also been taken to enable Algerians living abroad to benefit from certain mechanisms for access to promotional housing and employment in micro-entrepreneurship (with loans largely financed by the State).
However, dual nationals are not quite on the same equal footing regarding rights as their fellow citizens in Algeria. Since last October, a law has prevented them from owning a media outlet. They cannot hold high political office either.
