France: Canada, Switzerland, US interested in pool of highly skilled French Jewish professionals

According to Dr. Dov Maimon, senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem, other countries, especially Canada, Switzerland and the United States, have already woken up to the potential pool of French professionals and are advertising on French television and making campus visits to snare the best and brightest. Canada, and French-speaking Quebec especially, has paved the way for their integration into the workforce with conventions affirming broad-scale degree recognition.    

Israel hasn’t done much, says Maimon, despite Absorption Minister Sofa Landver’s recent flurry of press after the Paris attacks, announcing easement efforts in promoting a professional French aliya. Maimon, himself an immigrant from France, is set to deliver a policy paper to the government on the subject this week.  

According to Maimon, France’s Jews are ready and willing to leave France for varied entwined reasons, including the country’s extended economic crisis, demographic changes (the 250,000 educated emigrants are largely replaced by an equal number of unskilled immigrants from North Africa), taxation policies, legislation restricting Jewish practices, a crisis of governance and the strengthening of the far right, and — as underlined by last week’s attacks — a decline in personal security and surge in anti-Semitism. 

More: Times of Israel