The wave of French entrepreneurs going to England shows no signs of abating

…legislation limiting the workweek to 35 hours hurts small businesses more than large corporations. Contrasting France with Germany and Italy and their networks of robust - often family-run - multinational companies, [Elie Cohen, a leading French economist,] said: "We don't have a fabric of small and midsize enterprises; it's an essential weakness.

"The rules are made for the big enterprises, not for the small," Cohen added. There are an estimated 500,000 French men and women living and working in England, most of them younger than 35. The wave of entrepreneurs going to England shows no signs of abating.

Thus writes John Tagliabue in the New York Times.

Among the first young entrepreneurs to reach Kent, Mr. Cothias founded Eikos in 1998 after the French company that had employed him refused to let him establish a subsidiary in Britain. To register his company in Britain cost him £1, or about $2. In France, his parents would have had to mortgage the family home to pay the applicable fees, he said.

He also learned that while an employer in France must pay pension, unemployment and social security charges that add up to 48 percent of an employee’s salary, British employers pay only about 10 percent.

He says he believes that such differences reveal a deeper philosophical divide. “The economy is viewed here as something needed, one of the most important parts of society, if you want everyone to be clothed and fed,” Mr. Cothias said. “This creates a totally different environment for business.”