That's anecdotal. Just like the statement: "the French startup I work for is 6 year-old and a global leader in its segment". Who cares?
Perhaps having the most protective work ethic and labour rules is antiquated but that doesn't make it worst in my opinion. From my French perspective, France is the most resilient Western society nowadays, and that explains some disadvantages. It probably depends on your time horizon.
I'm English, well British, I guess you'd correctly term it. I was born in 1966 - a fine year - and emigrated, if that's the right word, to Belgium in 1999 when offered a job there. From 1984 until then, my partner was an Italian/Sicilian girl, born in the UK.
I'm still in Belgium - and no, it wasn't top of my list - but you follow the paths of life that a re presented to you. However, the Italian/Sicilian girl is ancient history and I ended up marrying a Danish girl in 2001, in the meantime we have three kids and we both work in the European Commission - she as an official (so civil servant), myself as a freelance consultant.
I am, of course, an immigrant. I am in a minority in the country I'm living in. But what I've learned in my time here is quite profound. Firstly, I see that we are all the same. Regardless of nationality, skin colour or religion, the fundamentals are the same. For sure, there are some cultural differences, but these are easy to strip away and what you're left with is a human being with pretty much the same basic needs in life as yourself and everyone else..
The other revelation is that you cannot tar a people with the same brush. For sure, as mentioned, there are a host of cultural differences that need to be catered for, but everyone is an individual, especially when it comes to ambition work-ethic and the like. A good example can be seen in the microcosm of Belgium, where you have the stereotypical lazy Walloons (French speakers) and the industrious Flemmish (Dutch speakers). Now to be fair, I relate better to the Flemish - the culture is much closer to the UK than the Walloons, but through direct experience, you cannot generalise that one group is lazier than the other, it just isn't true. For sure you'll get individuals that fit your expectation to prove the rule, but you'll get many others that do not.
The point of all this? Don't generalise about countries, it's wrong.
I work in an office with the following nationalities: Belgian, Albanian, Italian, French, Spanish, Argentinian, Greek, German, Lebanese, Iranian, Hungarian, Romanian, Cuban, Polish... maybe I missed one or two. Trust me, you could not predict which ones are the hard workers based on that.
