French authorities spent this week razing the notorious Jungle migrant camp, which THE WEEKLY STANDARD visited last winter. The Jungle was a shocking place. What made it unusual in the recent history of European migration is that it resulted from an actual obstacle being placed in migrants’ way. The obstacle was the English Channel. Whether migrants had been told (correctly) that England is a good place to work illegally, or whether they had girlfriends or relatives to join there, they wouldn’t compromise on their dream of getting there. They refused to just disappear into the world of hostels and soup kitchens and dishwashing jobs in the nearest big city. They stayed put in a place that was not prepared to receive them. They built an eyesore. They attacked the 18-wheel trucks slowing to carry freight through the Channel Tunnel to Britain. They became the occasion of foul-mouthed videos by Eastern European truck drivers. Worst of all, they became an embarrassment for politicians.
The Jungle was a fascinating place. Kurds, Eritreans, Pakistanis, Syrians … Jungle residents congregated by nation. (Here, from a journalist’s blog, is a map of their neighborhoods as of last winter.) Probably it will be fascinating again. The problem with these migrant concentrations is, they tend to reconstitute themselves unless they are razed to the ground and set off-limits. Just after our visit, French authorities, to much fanfare, bulldozed half the settlement. It was unavailing. The evicted were back within weeks. This week, France promised to “totally dismantle” the Jungle. Easier said than done. The demolitions began Monday morning. There turned out to be more unaccompanied minors in the camp than had been anticipated. When it turned out that these would receive special consideration from British immigration authorities, long lines formed of 30-year-old men claiming to be 16. Migrants were soon lighting parts of the camps on fire.
Where would they go? In mid-September authorities in Paris cleared 2,500 migrants from a makeshift street encampment in the Stalingrad neighborhood, which sits between two of Paris’s pretty nineteenth-century canals. There were only a handful left after that. Residents, who had described the behavior of the refugees as threatening and the odors from the camp as “unspeakable” (innommable), rejoiced. They were counting their chickens before they hatched. By the end of this week the street encampment held 2,000 migrants once again.
