New Books in Sociology Olivier Esteves et al., "France, You Love It but Leave It: The Silent Flight of French Muslims" (Polity, 2025)
Feb 6, 2026
Olivier Esteves, an academic researcher on race and immigration, discusses his book about why many French Muslims choose to live abroad. He describes the study's methods and the scale of interviews and surveys. He highlights discrimination in hiring, school experiences, destinations like London or Montreal, and the mixed feelings of gratitude and bitterness toward France.
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Gratitude And Departure Coexist
- Many French-born Muslims feel deep gratitude for France's public services yet leave because of persistent discrimination.
- The book's title captures this tension: attachment to French benefits paired with exclusion from opportunity.
Be Explicit About Selection Bias
- Acknowledge selection bias when crowdsourcing respondents and be transparent about limits of representativeness.
- Use mixed methods (large questionnaire plus deep biographical interviews) to triangulate findings.
Three Modes Of Career Exclusion
- Discrimination operates at multiple career stages: outright exclusion, glass ceilings, and persistent workplace microaggressions.
- Media and everyday jokes amplify frustration and push qualified people to seek opportunities abroad.
