How One French Town Combines Welcome for Migrants, Ecology and Social Emancipation

Article de Basta!, 30 mai 2015

Olivier Favier, May 2015

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In other languages : français

Summary :

Grande-Synthe, in the north of France, is one of the very few French towns that welcome hundreds of migrants with dignity and respect. Despite 28 percent unemployment of its active population and a third of households living below the poverty line, Grande-Synthe is also a place where ambitious environmental and social policies are conducted. Mayor Damien Carême and his team support a popular university in the service of the town’s residents, have created the first renewable energy stadium in France and are building an eco-neighborhood accessible to the poor. Their political resolution is compounded by solidarity with refugees en route to the United Kingdom, making the experience of Grande-Synthe’s refugees very different from the fate reserved for migrants in Calais’ nearby seedy shantytowns.

Sources :

basta.media/How-One-French-Town-Combines-Welcome-for-Migrants-Ecology-and-Social