A large majority of the children of African migrants born in France in the Paris region say that, within the next ten years, they want to migrate to their parents’ homelands.
Many of the French citizens in the Ile-de-France region born to African migrants say they want to leave France and resettle in their parent’s countries of origin, a phenomenon becoming known as repatriation or return migration.
Newspaper Le Parisien cited a 2019 Intelcia study of 800 children of African migrants, which revealed 71 per cent could move to their parents’ country of origin within the next ten years. Nearly 40 per cent said they would do so immediately.
The study also noted that those from sub-Saharan Africa were more likely to want to return to their parents’ country (58 per cent) than those from Muslim-majority North Africa, also known as the Maghreb (42 per cent). The largest number by age group of those who want to resettle were those between 24 and 27.
Another study, conducted in 2017 by the Avako Group, found that 93 per cent of so-called “Repats” felt satisfied in their choice to move to their parents’ country.
Diadié Soumaré, who helps Franco-Malians settle in Mali, told the newspaper this week: “In the Paris region, there is a pool of skills which may appear trivial in France but which are in demand in Africa.”
The group AfricaFrance has even claimed that those who migrate find themselves with as much as a 45 per cent increase in salary after finding work.
Diadié Soumaré was born in France and travelled to Mali on discounted aeroplane tickets as his father worked at Paris’ Charles De Gaulle airport.
After finding that he could sell iPhones in Mali for far more than he bought them in France, he eventually moved and later became the first official Apple distributor in Mali’s capital of Bamako, and now employs 20 people.
The Repat movement comes as many migrants continue to come to Europe illegally, many also seeking a better life or better economic prospects.
In October, the United Kingdom’s Channel migrants “tsar”, Dan O’Mahoney, claimed that most asylum seekers crossing from France to England were genuine asylum seekers, but this notion was shot down by the head of Migration Watch UK, Alp Mehmet.
“His assertion simply doesn’t stack up. Ninety-eight per cent of those crossing the Channel illegally do claim asylum, but this is hardly an indication of genuineness,” Mehmet told Breitbart London, suggesting that their reasons for migrating were largely economic.