Field Note #002: UvA Summer School - Day 1

Today is the first day of the two week summer school on Migration and Integration: Refugees, Rights and Realities. This programme will cover a variety of different aspects of migration and forced displacement including:

1. Narratives on migration

2. Europe's response to refugee arrivals

3. Responsibility sharing

4. Refugee and migrant led organisations

5. Integration

6. Impact of COVID

7. The future of displacement

Before the course began, we were assigned a short photo essay on an image of our choice. This is what I wrote:

Figure 1: Distribution Site in Calais, France [Source: Mobile Refugee Support, 2019]

This photograph depicts the distribution of non-food essentials such as sleeping bags and extra bedding to the migrants who have found shelter in Calais, northern France, by a volunteer organisation called Mobile Refugee Support (MRS) (Mobile Refugee Support, 2019). A majority of these migrants who have found themselves in Calais will be there only temporarily and make repeated attempts to cross the English Channel to the United Kingdom (Posner, 2021). Posted to MRS’ Facebook account on 14 January 2019, the photograph is representative of an enduring reality which has unfolded since the demolition of the so-called Calais ‘new’ Jungle in 2016 (Refugee Rights Europe, 2018).

In recent years, the French Government has pursued a zero-tolerance policy on ‘fixation-points’ in order to suppress the resurgence of migrant camps. However, there remains an estimated population of around one thousand migrants around Calais who in light of this policy have become even more mobile and transient, facing harassment and evictions of increasing violence and frequency at the hands of the authorities (Human Rights Observers, 2019). At the same time, NGOs in Calais have witnessed the increasing criminalisation of their aid provision, with a ban on the distribution of food (Oberti, 2021) and the arrests of their volunteers (Amnesty International, 2019).

Vans such as the ones depicted in the photograph have become emblematic of the way aid provision has been shaped by these events. NGOs employ vans in order to carry out their daily distributions where they meet migrants in pre-determined spaces and hand out essentials such as donated clothes, shoes, sleeping bags and tents. MRS in particular, have also developed the capacity to charge and repair mobile phones, as well as provide internet access (Mobile Refugee Support, 2020). Where the ‘camp’ in Calais has been fragmented and dispersed by the no-fixation point policy, a new form of ‘contingent’ camp has emerged (Hagan, 2020), one where pop-up spaces of aid and shelter constantly made, un-made and remade in a continual cycle of placemaking.

In this image, the vans have become the nodes of a network of spaces providing care and solidarity, in spite of the violence of the border. Romola Sanyal (2011) describes squatting practices as acts of rebellion and no doubt, the creation and appropriation of space as seen in Calais is a form of resistance. However, this is also borne out of necessity. Whilst the photograph evokes the notion of community, a coming together, it also alludes to the liminality of migrant spaces, especially when they are seen by the state as irregular and/or illegal. The transience of the distribution site can be felt deeply through the vans, the folding tables and the lack of any form of permanent structures. One could very easily imagine that not long after this photograph was taken, everything was packed up and whisked away at a moments’ notice, leaving no trace behind.

Bibliography

Amnesty International, 2019. British man facing up to five years in prison for documenting police abuse in Calais. [Online] Available at: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/british-man-facing-five-years-prison-documenting-police-abuse-calais [Accessed 28 June 2021].

Hagan, M., 2020. The Contingent Camp. In: T. Scott-Smith & M. E. Breeze, eds. Structures of Protection?. New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 111-121.

Human Rights Observers, 2019. Forced Evictions in Calais and Grande-Synthe, Calais: Human Rights Observers.

MacGregor, M., 2021. France: Snow blankets migrant tent camps in Calais and Dunkirk. [Online] Available at: https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/29769/france-snow-blankets-migrant-tent-camps-in-calais-and-dunkirk [Accessed 14 March 2021].

Mobile Refugee Support, 2019. Facebook. [Online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/MobileRefugeeSupport/photos/a.641094079429540/905435052995440/?type=3&theater [Accessed 28 June 2021].

Mobile Refugee Support, 2020. Aid We Provide. [Online] Available at: https://www.mobilerefugeesupport.org/aid-we-provide [Accessed 28 June 2021].

Oberti, C., 2021. Razed woodlands prevent migrants from sheltering around Calais. [Online] Available at: https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/29002/razed-woodlands-prevent-migrants-from-sheltering-around-calais [Accessed 14 March 2021].

Refugee Rights Europe, 2018. Refugees and Displaced People in Northern France, A Brief Timeline of the Human Rights Situation in the Calais Area, London: Refugee Rights Europe.

Sanyal, R., 2011. Squatting in camps: building and insurgency in spaces of refuge. Urban Studies, 48(5), pp. 877-890.

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Mobile Refugee Support, 2019. Distribution Site in Calais, France [Image] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/MobileRefugeeSupport/photos/a.641094079429540/905435052995440/?type=3&theater [Accessed 28 June 2021]