Tag Archives: France
A shout out to men of fighting age
‘They’re men of fighting age!’ scream the headlines, conjuring up images of threatening brutes. Aggressive rhetoric and hyperbole have coloured the migration debate in the UK throughout 2016, targeting young, male refugees in particular. British MP David Davies claims refugees are not ‘averse to lying about their ages’, and should undergo dental checks, sparking a […]
Book review: fiction captures the complex realities of Calais life
This summer, an independent publishing company in London released a book of short stories in an effort to bring more attention to the refugee crisis in Europe. Titled breach, the book, though fiction, is based on the interviews that authors Olumide Popoola and Annie Holmes conducted in the Calais refugee camp in northern France, in […]
Insights from Calais: The Hungry Road
People around the world were propelled into action at the sight of little Alan Kurdi’s body lying alone on the sand. The tragedy of displacement is often communicated by images of bodies on beaches and packed sinking boats. But if Alan Kurdi had been alive to tell his story, if he had arrived on that […]
Shaping and Reshaping Identity on Immigrant and Refugee Receptivity
Europe is in a “polycrisis.” That was the theme of a workshop I recently attended, along with colleagues from Kennesaw State University, at the Europäische Akademie Otzenhausen, in Germany. “Polycrisis” in this case refers to the challenges faced by European Union (EU) member states, including financial problems, terrorist threats, and, in particular, the increase in […]
Immigration: Catalyst for Political Alchemy in France
By Josh Erb In recent years, the debate around immigration in France has cultivated the rise to prominence of an intriguing political figure. Manuel Valls, who was appointed Prime Minister in March of 2014, is himself a naturalized immigrant who acquired his French citizenship at the age of 20 in 1982. Born in Barcelona, Valls […]
