In fairness to the UK, at least (I don't know if official documents are translated into Polish, for example, in Ireland), aren't most official documents translated into other languages? See here http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/DH_4123594, for instance. I suppose we're going a bit off-topic, but anyway.
It seems that this topic is a bit one-sided, as all the responses seem to be from professional people with qualifications that may or may not be recognised here. You are missing quite a large number of expats who had no degrees or qualifications in UK and had nothing but hard work ahead of them to scratch a living. Many who had run their own businesses of one sort or another in UK had to either do cleaning jobs on the black or go to work in abbatoirs, etc. or return to UK. People with few skills apart from manual trades haven't a hope. Language problems tend to force these people into services that can be sold to other English speaking expats, hence the term "cowboy builders" are commonly used on the expat forum discussions.
That last point has been much discussed on SFN and is typical of where language teaching fails too often. Using telephones is hard because of lack of body language and so on that often decode what is not directly understood or nuanced. As for the French lack of English, I think that in the UK that is often exactly the same in the other direction and imagine Ireland is similar. I know that as a bilingual, not French though, since I was called on a lot by people to help out from businesses and local authorities where somebody knew me and my other language. Never paid and often not even the words 'Thank you' even. Europe in general has got to shake itself down and change, take the likes of the Dutch, Belgians and Swiss as good examples and improve language skills. Then the work question and some cultural barriers will begin to be broken down.
I am in Burgundy, work as an AE in translation, and am about 40. I moved to France ten years ago when I lost my job in Ireland. I had a fair idea that I was going to work as a freelance translator before I moved here. Language and confidence with language is the barrier. I imagine that if I had to get a "proper" job, I would work in language teaching or in some form of import/export position. There also appears to be a desperate (unacknowledged) need for English-speaking people in institutions -- the Conseils Régionaux and Conseil Généraux, Town Halls in the bigger towns and cities, that kind of thing.
Let it be said lastly that if I got a "proper" job my working week would probably be 1/3 shorter and I would never have to work unsocial hours! ;-)
(Language is also a barrier because even for people like me with high levels of competency in French, I would say it's 10% more effort and stress to do business in French -- even setting aside cultural issues. For instance, how comfortable do people on Survive France feel when calling telephony providers, TV providers, etc. in France? Much less comfortable than when dealing with the same companies back "home", I would think.)
Hi Véronique
I also live in the Dordogne, my husband and I both work for 'La garderie', looking after children before and after school, we were both teachers in the UK. As this is only a part-time job we also look after 2 gîtes local to us for English people who live in the UK but rent-out their holiday homes and we look after the house and garden of a local American lady. As you can see we work for both French and English. I think we would both like to work for French companies but I'm not sure my French is up to it, although we mix mainly with our French neighbours and they all say our French is good enough, around here there really aren't the jobs, even our French friends are having difficulty finding jobs.
Aha, so they do pass through the system here too, despite what a few people, nurses who cannot find jobs particularly, have said on posts here. I know from the head nurse they would, the hospital has real non-French and I think I would conclude that language is part of the problem.
No, she looked pretty much what you'd expect an English girl brought up here to look like. ie just like any English girl only thinner and less made-up ;-)
Hello Veronique
Reorganisation at work made it possible for me to transfer to the Ardennes from the Midlands with a huge multinational steel company because they needed linguists for their Customer Service. We are in an area which is one of the poorest and least popular departments in France.
It is virtually impossible for foreigners to get a proper well paid job in France because the French keep the jobs for themselves (Alexander Keith Watson’s exemplary example is rare). We know of someone who spoke two other languages apart from French who applied for the job at the tourist office. She did not get the job but found the post was won by a French woman who spoke no English.
Many British people have a romantic idea about life in France. Our friends purchased a house in the Mayenne for 40,000 Euros and intend to use it as a retirement home. Like so many British people, they built up their funds by working in the UK and were attracted by the low property prices in France. When they do retire, the various extra costs will come as a shock. Taxes on pensions, taxes on income abroad, taxes on property in France, the high cost of providing health care, the currency exchanges costs for Sterling pensions – these will all need financing. Why not do a bit of this and a bit of that? Becoming an AE solves the problem of reluctant employers and health care in one go and boosts the income. Surely that is not what retirement is about?
We know Freiburg very well as my partner comes from the Black Forest and we spent some time between Christmas and New Year there. The reason that you only find professionals there is that they are the only ones able to afford to live in one of the most expensive parts of Germany. You could not finance life in Freiburg by working as an AE.
A young, very small woman, part Asian perhaps? If so she was incredibly concerned about me when I was taken in as an emergency and kept on a trolley for several hours waiting... Being only an intern nobody listened to her...
My original surgeon, now gone to Marmande, is Moroccan and trained there. In fact he wants a job at Leeds Royal Infirmary because his sister is a medic there, another is an Algerian trained there and one other Japanese...
More power to your elbow :-)
Hi! That sounds very interesting, much more so than what I do - I've copied your brother, essentially because if I want to work close to home, teaching English is the way to do it (3 colleges and a lycée général = 24 or 25 posts just here in Bergerac...)
interesting point, I'm English but did a maîtrise here and I'm sure that that has made things easier for me as people see a qualification they're familiar with
exactly the response we got from family and friends here too, most of my OH's colleagues are on medication, the situation at the school has got that bad - directeur sacked, no replacement etc, but they prefer to wait for closure rather than change jobs and be proactive!
Yes. :-(
N African & Asian people (who may or may not be French anyway) have probably done their medical studies here & don't count as foreign ;-) Actually I met an intern in A&E who is ethnically British but went through the school system here. Nice girl.
I think it is similar elsewhere, Véronique, from discussions here on sfn it seems as though it is extremely difficult for most to get into the mainstream which isn't surprising in the present climate where it's sooo difficult for the French too.
With one exception it seems, health. In Bergerac the hospital, Clinique Pasteur and other parts of that world I have had the misfortune to have been dealt with until recently, the minority of doctors appear to be French. Most are North African and Asian, no prejudice intended at all by saying that. We know the head nurse and he said that he would certainly be happy to have British trained nurses - if they would learn French of course.
What is quite funny Véronique is that when I quit, my boss quite simply would not believe that i was striking out on my own, he was convinced I was going to work for a competitor for a better wage. My colleagues also thought I was completely crazy to give up a CDI to work for myself, especially at the grand old age of 46.
Thank you all for taking the trouble to reply - here (Bergerac is my nearest town) from what I have seen 'mainstream' jobs for expats don't seem to exist & they seem to be outside the French circuit. I wondered if it was similar elsewhere. Obviously not!
It really was sheer nosiness on my part (now assuaged). Thanks again!
Hi Véronique. I’m British and working for a wholly French company that is part of a British group. By that I mean the maison mère is British.
Although the bones of my job is carried out in a lot of French companies, I realised that I would have little to no chance getting in with the French companies off the back of speculative cv-ing and sending out prospecting letters. I therefore took the decision to go with the French subsidiary of a uk firm. Now, as my name has become more known in the industry with the French companies we work with, I feel it would not necessarily be so much of a challenge, to move into a native French company, as it was when I was initially looking for work.