He was born in France but emigrated to Senegal to look for a future

He was born in France but emigrated to Senegal to look for a future

Menka Gomis is one of the many second generation kids who was born and raised in France. Her mother arrived here from Senegal when she was still a child. After many sacrifices made to give her son a better life, she now finds herself faced with a situation that seems irreversible: Menka wants to leave France to build her future in Senegal, where her parents were born.

“The Silent Exodus”

The man, who is 39 years old and lives in Paris, is part of the growing number of Franco-Africans who are leaving France, due to the rise of racism, discrimination and nationalism. A phenomenon defined by the British broadcaster BBC as a “silent exodus.” Menka is one of many who makes this phenomenon more concrete. The 39-year-old, as reported by the BBC, founded a small travel agency in Senegal which offers packages aimed at those who wish to rediscover their roots in Africa. Menka is aware of being born and raised in France, but considers Africa the “land of the future, where everything is still to be built”.

The 39-year-old told the British broadcaster that he had suffered acts of racism since he was a child, but now things seem to have gotten worse in France due to the mix of nationalism and Islamophobia and the rise of Marine Le Pen’s far right. A recent survey conducted among the population of African descent in France found that 91% of respondents had been victims of racial and religious discrimination.

Leaving France to escape racism

After numerous riots and protests over the treatment of immigrants by police and law enforcement, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on Paris to address “problems of racial discrimination within of its law enforcement agencies”. In June last year, riots broke out across the country in response to the shooting death of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, a French citizen of Algerian origin, by police. Investigators are still working on the case, but the protests have shaken public opinion and have awakened a latent feeling of anger over the treatment of ethnic minorities in France.

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The French Foreign Ministry rejected the UN office’s criticism, arguing that “any accusation of systemic racism or discrimination by the police in France is totally unfounded. France and its police – it said – fight resolutely against the racism and all forms of discrimination”. However, according to statistics from the French Interior Ministry, racist crimes increased by a third last year, with over 15,000 incidents of violence recorded.

France welcomes over 7.3 million migrants (of which 46% come from Africa) and is one of the favorite destinations for Africans due to the presence of many relatives. Last year alone, according to data from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), around 142,500 people requested asylum in France and a third of these requests were accepted. Now the Paris government has set the objective of decreasing entries into the country: Prime Minister Michel Barnier and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have pledged to repress immigration, both legal and illegal, pushing for changes to the law at the national and European.

However, it is difficult to have an accurate figure on how many people choose to make the reverse journey to Africa, as French law prohibits the collection of data on race, religion and ethnicity. But according to research carried out by the BBC, many highly qualified French citizens of Muslim origin, often children of immigrants, are silently emigrating to their parents’ countries of origin. The British broadcaster highlights how highly qualified young people choose to leave France, also fueling the phenomenon of “brain drain”.