The “Jungle” of Calais and the Contemporary Global Refugee Order
Installment 15 of: ‘The Making of the Modern Interment Regime.’
The contemporary European refugee crisis may be seen as the latest step in the development of a global internment order that began at Argelès-sur-mer, France, in 1939. It was at this time that nearly 500,000 Spaniards escaping General Franco’s nationalist forces began fleeing to France, expecting to find asylum and comfort at last. Instead, they were corralled onto the beaches of Southern France and forced to fend for themselves. Much like the Spanish exiles forced to care for themselves on the beaches in 1939, today’s asylum seekers continue to engage in a process of forced self-settlement and, in some cases, self-internment across Europe.
The contemporary case of Calais, France, may be seen as a clear example of the latest development in the global internment order that began at Argelès. Beginning in 2005, migrants traveling from many nations began settling without the approval of the French authorities in a camp near the Channel Tunnel connecting France and Britain. This camp, a massive collection of tents and people, came to be known throughout the world as “The Jungle” of Calais. Those residing in the camp were neither permitted to journey onward nor were they directly repatriable by the French government. Known for its appalling and inhospitable conditions, “The Jungle” would quickly become a symbol of the paradoxes of the contemporary global politics of asylum.
“These situations (self-organized refuges) are marked by an extreme material precariousness, and the feeling that those people who settle there will remain only for a short period. If this is indeed the general case, these zones are also transition points with a long life expectancy, and sometimes sites of urban stabilization.” (Michel Agier)*
To better understand the events at Calais, a brief timeline may be useful:
1999- Red Cross opens a migrant camp near Calais, France at Sangatte, half a mile from the English Channel Tunnel.
November 2002- Sangatte formally closes, and a new, unsanctioned camp in Calais opens. It is later nicknamed “The Jungle”.
April 2009- French authorities raid the new camp at Calais. Shortly thereafter, the camp is shut down.
April 2015- Another camp is established without state approval near a government day center, nicknamed “The New Jungle”.
February 2016- French authorities establish a shelter in the northern part of the camp. The southern portion of “The New Jungle” is soon demolished, sparking extreme protests.
September 26th, 2016- President Francois Hollande, announces that “The Jungle” is to be destroyed.
October 2016- The first evacuations begin, and migrants are moved from Calais. Officially, It remains closed today.
The Creation of “The Jungle”
The events surrounding the Calais crisis began in 2002. Both “The Jungle” and Sangatte, its predecessor, were strategically positioned near the entrance to the channel tunnel, through which Britain and France are connected (Davies, 2015). This location proves critical, as a portion of the territory near the Channel Tunnel is considered English territory; this means migrants who are able to reach this area can make a claim for British asylum and try to enter England proper. According to international refugee law, migrants who are able to reach the territory must be allowed to make an asylum claim and to remain in that country until their case is reviewed and a decision made by the appropriate legal authorities.
Location, Location and the Goals of Asylum
For its occupants, the primary purpose of the Calais camp was to serve as a jumping-off point for the risky final trip to England, where they sought to claim asylum. The location of the Jungle, adjacent to major roads used by lorries, or shipping trucks, was intentional; asylum-seekers often used these lorries as ways to enter British territory. Media sources report that in 2017 alone, asylum seekers tried 12,349 times to stow away on UK-bound lorries (Bayliss, 2017). While there are many factors involved, one of the principal reasons migrants and refugees opt to make their asylum claims in Britain and not France involves identification papers; such documentation is rarely required in Britain to obtain work or housing. (Refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers are often required to yield or lose identification papers to traffickers and others). In France, however, very little can be done without proper documentation, and minimal aid is provided to asylum seekers awaiting decision on their status (Henley, 2001). Unable to travel forward, and thinly protected by the possibility of global outrage at the prospect of mass expulsions by the French government, asylum-seekers at Calais remained in a state of suspended animation.
Some critics of the current global migration phenomenon — and of “the Jungle” — have sought to depict these travelers as economic migrants, in order to disqualify them from the protection of an international refugee regime. This argument has also been used by government figures seeking to justify the mass expulsion of migrants from their nations, whilst also trying to persuade other states to take them in. It is important to consider that these political figures, like the vice-president of the European Commission quoted below, may have political motivations for encouraging the view that these migrants are simple opportunists, rather than persons dispossessed by persecution or war.
“According to the vice-president of the European Commission, ‘More than half of all migrants to Europe are motivated by ‘economic reasons’ and are not fleeing war or persecution.’” (William Worley)**
As governments attempt to force immigrants to return to their own nations without directly violating international norms, a key tactic has been the constant rearrangement of camp spaces. Scholars analyzing the creation and destruction of spaces argue that, by forcing the asylum-seekers into areas that constantly shift and disappear, their sense of belonging and status is affected in fundamental ways (Howarth, 2015). When people’s dwellings and living areas are constantly in question, it becomes easier for governments and other agencies to call other parts of their identity — such as claims to a particular nationality or status — into question. In unofficial camps like the “Jungle”, the constant burning or razing of sections of the camp by police and other state agencies helped sustain an uneasy feeling of impermanence and a sense of not belonging. By creating, or simply allowing, camp conditions which are below a certain standard, governments also attempt to push migrants back to their regions of origin without formally expelling them. Like those left on the beaches of Argelès in 1939, asylum-seekers in Calais now find themselves surviving under shocking conditions due to the French government’s deliberate reluctance to accommodate them.
The World Watches
Perspectives on the events at Calais varied widely. Many European governments fought to keep the asylum-seekers from their borders or, in in the case of France, from settling permanently on French soil. Rather, the tacit expectation became that these people should remain in a state of impermanence. This is also how the issue of the English ‘zone’ in France quickly became a point of contention between the two nations. France often felt overwhelmed by the passage of migrants and claimed England should share a larger role in their struggle to manage the crisis (Ibrahim, 2015). For its part, England pressured France to stem the apparent ‘flow’ of migrants seeking asylum, as its media and government sources turned to moral arguments to justify what they perceived as necessary measures to the world. When the original refugee camp, Sangatte, was shut down, France presented the closure as a humanitarian triumph.
In France and across Europe certain parties and governments sought to link migrants with increased crime rates and a loss of national purity:
“In 2015, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, claimed in multiple speeches that ‘migrants represented a threat to the European identity and to the Christian values.’” (Oli Mould)**
Analyses of media coverage show that the framing of the events in Calais influenced public perception of migrants. One example of this sort of re-framing was the description of the migrant populations as creatures akin to insects or animals: living, yet removed from the reader themselves. Calais itself was “often presented as a town under ‘siege’ from migrants who ‘swarm’ into vehicles headed across the Channel” (Ibrahim, 2015). Turning to these tropes, among others, media sources and organizations could associate imagery usually considered revolting or inhuman with the reality of those desperately seeking asylum. On the other hand, international media also tended to show pictures and stories to invoke emotion, generally taking a more empathetic perspective. The shocking conditions that the French government permitted to develop in places like “The Jungle” drew criticism from humanitarian organizations, as well as from the global public.
The lack of aid available in Calais was documented and published, as seen on the left. One scholar suggests, “In many respects, the position of the French government has been a disgrace… it has accepted to host only a tiny minority of refugees.” Clearly, the French government “has repeatedly tried to scatter them (asylum-seekers) around France, far from the Channel where many tend to go” (Bensimon, 2016, pg.2). This analysis, centering around the government’s discreet, yet intentional, pushing away and dispersal of refugees, can be seen in contemporary sources and subsequent assessments.
“This new camp, in all its impoverished and deliberate indignity, can be seen as part of a matrix of politics… ‘designed to force migrants back along their pathways of expulsion,’” without explicitly stating so. (Kim Rygiel)***
The Politics of “The Jungle”
A critical component of the migrant crisis concerns the issue of sovereignty. Throughout these events involving Calais there was a rise in tensions between France and nearby Britain, as each argued that the other should take more responsibility for the increasing numbers of asylum-seekers.
“France has blamed the United Kingdom for its lenient asylum rules and the European Union for not having a uniform immigration policy. Britain, on the other hand, felt that the establishment of…[Sangatte and Calais] was a significant element in exacerbating the problem.” (Yasmine Ibrahim)*****
The result of these tensions and of a shared unwillingness to accommodate asylum-seekers was the creation of an unofficial inter-national space in which these migrants were placed ‘until some solution could be found.’ In essence: a situation of permanent impermanence. As Bulley notes, “while refugees who are permanently resettled have the possibility of gaining the protection of a new community, those in camps are often liminal figures in an extraterritorial space, between clearcut sovereignties”(Bulley, 2014). In a context where contemporary nation states maintain “bounded citizenship” and respect one another’s exclusive territorial sovereignty, global agreements and norms for the care and management of refugees has become nearly unworkable (Gatrell, 2015, pg. 2). France and England are each unwilling to integrate the large migrant populations. Each has struggled to find ways to relieve the perceived ‘burden’ without causing global outcry concerning human rights norms, or violating the other’s sovereign decisions concerning migrants. Thus, rather than accept responsibility for these displaced persons, governments now force asylum-seekers into a pattern of self-internment and conditions of limbo that characterize the new global internment order.
The Conclusion of the Calais Camp
Interestingly, some data shows that many nations could benefit from the influx of a badly needed and able-bodied workforce. And yet, a history of fear and xenophobia often outweigh any perceived need for migrants. Nations continue to struggle with the tense politics of asylum, quietly forcing migrants into shocking conditions of limbo, and discreetly encouraging them to return whence they came. Though “The Jungle” of Calais was officially closed in 2016, the global refugee crisis persists. Many of these people — including many of those who were forcibly removed from Calais — now attempt to find refuge in the streets of nearby French cities until they are able to continue their journey:
This conflict, which links the condition of migrants with international politics, characterizes the contemporary global order. European governments have chosen to force asylum seekers into a state of impermanence within their own borders, rather than accept responsibility for these people. The contemporary events at Calais reflect a global change in refugee management and law, with nations increasingly shifting responsibility for displaced persons away from themselves and shifting the burden of responsibility onto migrants and the dispossessed. As the global refugee crisis heightens, and nations continue to deflect responsibility for accepting and integrating desperate migrants, prospective asylum seekers continue to find themselves in a stateless limbo, the origins of which may be found in the beaches of southern France.
Block Quotes
*Agier, Michel. “Managing the Undesirables: Refugee Camps and the Humanitarian Government.” Polity Press (2011).
*****Ibrahim, Yasmin, and Anita Howarth. “Sounds of the jungle: Rehumanizing the migrant.” JOMEC Journal 7 (2015).
***Mould, Oli. 2016. “The not-so-concrete Jungle: material precarity in the Calais refugee camp.” Cultural Geographies.
****Rygiel, Kim. “Bordering solidarities: Migrant activism and the politics of movement and camps at Calais.” Citizenship studies 15, no. 01 (2011): 1–19.
**Worely, William. 2016 “Six out of 10 migrants to Europe come for ‘economic reasons’ and are not refugees, EU Vice President Frans Timmermans says.” The Independent.
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