The Jungle: Calais's Camps and Migrants

For nearly two decades, the area surrounding the French port of Calais has been a temporary staging post for thousands of migrants and refugees hoping to cross the Channel to Britain. It achieved global attention when, at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, all those living there were transferred to a single camp that became known as ‘the Jungle’. Until its dismantling in October 2016, this precarious site, intended to make its inhabitants as invisible as possible, was instead the focal point of international concern about the plight of migrants and refugees.  This new book is the first full account of life inside the Jungle and its relation to the global migration crisis. Anthropologist Michel Agier and his colleagues use the particular circumstances of the Jungle, localized in space and time, to analyse broader changes under way in our societies, both locally and globally. They examine the architecture of the camp, reconstruct how everyday life and routine operated and analyse the mixed reactions to the Jungle, from hostile government policies to movements of solidarity.   This comprehensive account of the life and death of Europe’s most infamous camp for migrants and refugees demonstrates that, far from being an isolated case, the Jungle of Calais brings into sharp relief the issues that confront us all today, in a world where the large-scale movement of people has become, and is likely to remain, a central feature of social and political life.

Table of Contents:
Illustrations vii Introduction for a better understanding 1 A longer history of the Jungle 2 Europe and the migration question 4 Calais as metonym for European crisis … and solidarity 7 1 Movement to and fro the Calais region from 1986 to 2016 14 1986–1997 the indifference of the French authorities 15 1997–1999 a growing attention 16 1999–2000 the Sangatte moment 18 2002 British control at the port of Calais 20 The long years of eviction 21 2009 ‘The closing of the Calais Jungle’ a new media sequence 24 The network of voluntary organizations 27 A brief ray of light 30 The rise of the far right 33 September 2014 onward concentrate, disperse, control 37 2 From Sangatte to Calais inhabiting the ‘Jungles’ 46 Sangatte, 1999–2002 46 March 2015 Jungles, camps, squats 49 April 2015 to October 2016 the Jungle or ‘the art of building towns’ 60 3 A sociology of the Jungle everyday life in a precarious space 76 Society under precarious conditions 76 Settling in the shantytown 81 Economic and social life 84 Making a community 91 4 A Jungle of solidarities 94 Calais as a cosmopolitan crossroads of solidarities 94 The situation in other encampments 103 Mobilization networks from local to national 109 5 Destruction, dispersal, returns 116 ‘The biggest shantytown in Europe’ 116 The sheltering operation as spectacle 122 Dispersal 126 After the demolition returns and rejections 130 Conclusion the Calais event 134 The camp as hypertrophy of the border 135 Cosmopolitics of the Jungle 138 Postscript how this book was written 144 The authors 145 Notes 149 Index 158

About the Author :
MICHEL AGIER is Senior Researcher at the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD) and Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris.

Review :
‘In this detailed depiction of life in “the Jungle”, Michel Agier and colleagues offer a powerful, poetic argument about the power and value of place. Taking seriously the lives of those in the camp, this work is a much-needed recognition of their experience and an acknowledgement of their humanity.’ Michael Collyer, University of Sussex ‘In this work, Michel Agier brings his formidable intellect to bear on how we should understand the Calais “Jungle”. The result is a notable contribution to contemporary discussions of mobility, solidarity, precarity and, most importantly, how we think about Europe itself.’ Matthew J. Gibney, University of Oxford