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I've heard that there are (or were) large migrant camps around the chunnel in Calais. Are these people mostly from one region or are their origins fairly heterogeneous?

Tholian_Avenger wrote:I've heard that there are (or were) large migrant camps around the chunnel in Calais. Are these people mostly from one region or are their origins fairly heterogeneous?

All over the place - mostly Syrian these days I think, for obvious reasons.

Yes there are such camps. Here's a look at one.

I thought Syrian and Iraqi refugees were going to Central and Eastern Europe; South Asians, Libyans, as well as other Africans were trying for Western Europe.

France is a good country, why don't the refugees/migrants try to stay there?

From what I've read, the UK has a pretty generous welfare state, and is quite soft on the whole immigrant/refugee thing. It's one of the best places you can go to in Europe if you're a migrant looking for a place to live.

Graham Kennedy wrote:From what I've read, the UK has a pretty generous welfare state, and is quite soft on the whole immigrant/refugee thing. It's one of the best places you can go to in Europe if you're a migrant looking for a place to live.

On a similar note, isn't France (due to recent events) becoming less tolerant, along with a strain of far-right anti-migrant politics working its way in from the Low Countries?

Thats the true danger of this situation. Not the immediate effect of a few hundred thousand refuges, but the long term political swing right.

What are you afraid of Teaos? Reduction of social benefits, reduced immigration, a decline of cultural civility resulting in street level harassment, death camps, or what? I'm not being sarcastic here.

Graham Kennedy wrote:From what I've read, the UK has a pretty generous welfare state, and is quite soft on the whole immigrant/refugee thing.

I thought all countries in the European Union had a standardized policy of immigration and citizenship.

Tholian_Avenger wrote:What are you afraid of Teaos? Reduction of social benefits, reduced immigration, a decline of cultural civility resulting in street level harassment, death camps, or what? I'm not being sarcastic here.

I don't believe he's referring to the effects of policy so much as people like Geert Wilders being given more widespread credence and political clout.

During my vacation in the UK there was a headline about building an "iron wall" around the tunnel. I was surprised that it's so difficult to secure a single point of entry. Was it just not a concern until recently?

Tholian_Avenger wrote:What are you afraid of Teaos? Reduction of social benefits, reduced immigration, a decline of cultural civility resulting in street level harassment, death camps, or what? I'm not being sarcastic here.

Graham Kennedy wrote:From what I've read, the UK has a pretty generous welfare state, and is quite soft on the whole immigrant/refugee thing.

I thought all countries in the European Union had a standardized policy of immigration and citizenship.

For those that are already EU citizens, yes. For those coming outside of the EU to live in EU states while there are EU guidelines the matter is largely down to the external immigration laws of the country in question.

Reliant121 wrote:

Tholian_Avenger wrote:I thought all countries in the European Union had a standardized policy of immigration and citizenship.

For those that are already EU citizens, yes. For those coming outside of the EU to live in EU states while there are EU guidelines the matter is largely down to the external immigration laws of the country in question.

Thank you for clearing that up Reliant.

sunnyside wrote:During my vacation in the UK there was a headline about building an "iron wall" around the tunnel. I was surprised that it's so difficult to secure a single point of entry. Was it just not a concern until recently?

Trains are very long and provide plenty of access points to stow away. So it's more like a line segment than a point. I would guess there must be such a high rate of traffic that it is impractical to completely secure a train before transit.

Not so much on this particular forum. But in other settings where the EU crowd has been giving the US a lot of crap on these issues, I must confess to a little Schadenfreude as the Europeans transform into Donald Trump.