Just over a year ago, when he was 44, Gilles Douieb left Paris, where he had lived all his life and had a good job, and came to Montreal with his wife and two children to start anew.

Although not religious, Douieb was feeling increasingly uneasy as a Jew living in Europe – and especially France. Above all, he worried about his teenaged daughters and their future.

“The first reason we left is anti-Semitism and Islamism and the tensions between communities,” he said. “We were becoming more and more isolated. We felt we needed to isolate ourselves.”

While the family had not experienced hatred directly, the children were getting uncomfortable in school, as Muslim students were increasingly bringing religious and ethnic issues to the fore, he said. “More and more, we were asking ourselves why (life) has to be so complicated.”

The Douiebs are among the more than 110 Jewish families and individuals – mostly from France, but also from Belgium and Switzerland – who have been assisted in resettling in Montreal by Initiative France-Montréal, which was launched by Federation CJA, with its social services agency Ometz, in October 2015.

The agency has another 200 open files on people who are seriously considering immigrating to Quebec.

They fall into two general categories: singles, often students, and young families, typically with three children, said Monique Lapointe, Ometz’s director of immigration.

‘in France, if I mentioned I was Jewish in a social situation, there was a shift in attitude, a tension or self-consciousness’

They are almost all middle or upper-middle class, she said, either professionals, or highly skilled. They overwhelmingly come from Paris, with some from Marseille. Reciprocal agreements between Quebec and France expedite the recognition of many professional credentials.

They are concerned about their security in France to varying degrees, but mainly they see greater economic opportunity in Montreal, as well as a chance to escape from a stifling “Old World” social order.

Graphic designer Gary Atlas, 33, has been living in Montreal since November on a closed work permit, meaning he had a specific job confirmed before he arrived. He is eagerly awaiting permanent residency status.

Atlas, who was born in Belgium, had lived in Paris for 10 years. His prime motivation for emigrating was that he finds cities like Paris and Brussels have become “museums,” and are in a “slump” that most tourists don’t see. That malaise is more than economic, he believes.

“I had lost a job and was freelancing. I was re-evaluating my situation. Things were also starting to become a bit unsavoury in Europe in general, especially when you are a Jew,” he said.

Except for his father, his immediate relatives had already left, mainly to London and Tel Aviv.

“Anti-Semitism was a factor. You can feel it’s not going to get better anytime soon,” he said. Atlas sent out his CV to prospects in a number of cities, including London, New York, Sydney and Montreal (unlike many French immigrants, he is fluent in English). He did not consider Israel, he said, because “it just didn’t feel right.”

He got several responses from Montreal, spent some months in the city and “fell in love” with it. One of his potential employers referred him to Ometz and the agency has been a big help to him, especially with paperwork.

“They are great people,” he said.

Atlas, who lives in the Plateau neighbourhood, designs catalogues and brochures for a real estate company.

“Everything is fantastic,” he said of his new circumstances, “but very different from Europe. It’s more dynamic. People are go-getters. There’s more opportunity. This is still the new world, it’s still developing.”

He was happy to find that people here “don’t care” that he’s Jewish.

“In France, if I mentioned I was Jewish in a social situation, there was a shift in attitude, a tension or self-consciousness. I have not felt that here so far.”

Lapointe found the same thing, saying that, “In France, they did not feel comfortable talking about being Jewish, but here they find an open society.”

Initiative France-Montréal was a response to what was expected to be an influx of French Jews, especially following the deadly terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher grocery store in Paris in January 2015.

It was thought that a common language and well-organized Jewish community, as well as Montreal’s European flavour, reviving economy and lower cost of living would make Quebec a likely destination for many French Jews. Indeed, French and Belgian Jews have been coming to Montreal since the end of the Second World War.

Ometz received a spike in inquiries from French Jews in the wake of numerous terrorist attacks.

‘the Federation has allocated $137,000 annually to the initiative’

Younger, well-educated francophones would be a boon to a community that has been on the decline for decades. Nevertheless, the Federation had to avoid the appearance of competing with Israel, where thousands of French Jews have flocked in recent years, or of depleting the French Jewish community, let alone offending France, a country with which Canada has deep historical and cultural ties.

Initiative France-Montréal reaches out to potential newcomers through a page linked to the Federation’s website.

“The Jewish community of Montreal is organized to welcome you and support you in your intercultural transition,” it states. “The main objective of this program is to accompany these new members on their journey from their first steps in order to prepare them for ‘décodage franco-québécois’ and to help them succeed better in their integration.”

The program provides practical information, sometimes by Skype, helps arrange exploratory trips to Montreal and once the migrants are here, it provides them with assistance finding employment, housing and schools, as well as navigating the immigration process – free of charge.

The Federation has allocated $137,000 annually to the initiative, which is run by three staff members.

The program’s integration consultant, Laetitia Sellam, the first person information seekers make contact with, said she spends much of her time listening to French people discuss their decisions. “It’s almost existential,” she said.

Approximately an equal number of these immigrants have settled in Montreal in each of the first two years the initiative has been operating. About two-thirds come on work permits or study visas, which is a faster route to permanent residency than applying to immigrate from inside France, Lapointe said.

She described the current pace of inquiries as “slow, but steady.” Too much is unforeseeable to predict what the trend might be, she said.

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The election in May of French President Emmanuel Macron is viewed positively by many French Jews, who had little confidence in his predecessor, François Hollande, and Sellam believes that is influencing some to stay in the country for the time being.

She now receives an average of two emails or calls a week from France. Lately, a “very few” number of inquiries are from those who migrated to Israel.

‘If they are not showing up in the synagogues, it’s probably because that was not their habit in France’

There is less sense of urgency today and therefore prospective immigrants are taking their time and doing extensive research before deciding, she said.

Sellam knows what her clients are experiencing. She came to Montreal in 2008 and has been a citizen since 2014. A communications specialist, Sellam said she left France simply because she wanted “to be more free.”

She felt more in tune with the North American mentality and wanted to live in a society more suited to her values. She has no regrets.

French immigrants are now the second most numerous seen by Ometz, and are gaining on those from Israel, which has been the top source for some years, Lapointe said.

France is also the number two source of immigrants to Quebec. The Immigration Ministry reports that 38,183 immigrants came from that country between 2005 and 2014, surpassed only by Algeria. The French Embassy said there were over 58,000 people in the Montreal area alone who are eligible to vote in the upcoming French elections in April.

It is estimated that some 150,000 French nationals live in the metropolis, but no one knows how many are Jewish. As Lapointe observes, French Jews are not as closely connected to their community structures as Montreal Jews. Self-sufficient as most are, these immigrants may simply not need community assistance, so Ometz’s figures could be the tip of the iceberg.

But Henri Elbaz, president of the Communauté unifiée Sépharade du Québec, a Sephardic cultural and social services organization, doubts it. Recent French immigration is not visible to him, and he hasn’t seen it make a discernible impact on the community, even though the large majority of French immigrants are Sephardic. He wonders if more effort could have been made to attract French Jews.

Yet most of them are probably busy getting established and have little time for community life. Sellam said a large portion of them are sending their kids to Jewish schools. If they are not showing up in the synagogues, it’s probably because that was not their habit in France.

In March, Ometz held a family brunch for the French immigrants and more than 70 attended. And it has begun pairing the newcomers with local families to help further their integration.

This fall, the agency will reach out to university students through a networking cocktail party. This job-seeking technique is unfamiliar to them, Lapointe said.

Indeed, many French immigrants are baffled by how people interact with one another here. This is particularly true in their job search. They don’t understand why employers place so much emphasis on their personal qualities, Sellam explained, or why, when they seem to have gotten along so well in the interview, they don’t get a call back.

On the other hand, they are pleased that their qualifications are respected and that they do not have to automatically “start at the bottom,” as is customary in France.

These newcomers often find differences in interpersonal relationships one of the biggest adjustments they have to make.

Some French immigrants may be going outside Montreal to restart their careers, like doctors Quentin Gobert and Lyndia Dernis, who left France in 2013. The couple, who are both anesthesiologists, were working in Lac-Mégantic, Que., near the U.S. border.

Living three hours from Montreal was a challenge for the family, which is observant and has three children, but was necessary to meet the College of Physicians’ requirements. In the past year, Gobert and Dernis both found positions in Montreal.

Like Atlas, Gilles Douieb did not see Israel as an option. “I had some fears about the way I would be welcomed, whether I would get a job and about security, too,” he said.

“I have to confess that Montreal was easier for a French guy than anywhere else. Also, I had friends here who gave me an example, who explained daily life.”

Finding suitable employment was not easy for Douieb, whose field is digital marketing. He searched for eight months before landing his current job as vice-president of sales for a software firm.

“When you are 45 and have a family, even one month is a long time,” he said. His wife cannot work because she is a student and the family is here on a study permit.

Until the family has permanent residency status, they are ineligible for health care and other social benefits, so the transition has been anxiety inducing, he said.

Ometz helped him in many ways, including finding his job. “The Jewish community has been absolutely incredible,” he said.

His daughters are attending Collège International Marie de France, a school with ties to France.

Their parents thought a Jewish school would be too insular. They have also resisted living in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, choosing to settle in the multicultural area of Côte-des-Neiges, instead.

“To live in Côte-St-Luc, to pray in Côte-St-Luc, to buy your food in Côte-St-Luc, that’s not living in Canada for me,” he said.

“Social relationships are totally different here… Even in the Jewish community, it’s different. Montreal is a kind of village. Everybody knows everybody, which is absolutely not the case in Paris.”

That’s part of the “décodage franco-québécois,” to which Ometz is referring.