Are all French fleeing their homeland?

After electing François Hollande a little over a year ago, the French are beginning to panic, as if they believed that the jovial socialist president could resolve the economic quandary facing the developed world in general and Europe in particular.

A recent article in “Le Point,” a French weekly magazine, was reproducing the letter of a 20 year old young girl threatening to leave France, her beloved homeland, to avoid facing an uncertain future. What this young person doesn't seem to know it that emigration is not for the faint of heart and certainly not for her, as she unveils her aspirations.

That's right, she seems to need the security and certainty that are France's inalienable rights. Sorry, lady, they don't make these ingredients anymore whether you live in New York, New Delhi or Newcastle. What she has no idea of, is the anguish that come packaged with emigrating, or “expatriating” herself as she puts it, without an already-found job in the land of her choice, a French accent that sticks to you forever and a total ignorance of the local culture.

I say this because I have experienced it myself for most than half a lifetime. In order to survive and thrive, you need to be a persistent S.O.B., to be somehow more talented than the average and super-lucky.

Sure, if you are rich and famous, like the French people who have “emigrated” to Geneva, Switzerland, or Depardieu to Russia, this sounds quite appealing, but if you pack up and leave to North America, Germany or China, better leave France with tons of good luck, super talent, willingness to work much harder, a tough, hard-shell and endless stamina!