> (the reason was not always disclosed, but some recruiters did explicitly tell her that it was because of her Hijab). Which is different from the UK and other European countries from what I have been told.

That's because the French culture does not work on the same basis as the UK and northern european countries. The french society strongly goes towards integration and not multiculturalism.

It has a lot of deep consequences in the society, starting that people expect you to identify and behave as French, regardless of your background, skin color or anything else.

This means you will really be treated as a local from day one and just a small racist minority will really care about your background. But it also means as a double edged sword that if people perceive that you reject this identity, they will think that you are rejecting the society and will react negatively.