Migrants clinging to their English dream
Many migrants want to go to England at all costs. They put forward the hope of working, of having papers more easily. For many, this destination is also a last resort.
- Nathalie Birchem and Élodie Goulesque (in London) ,
- on 08/17/2023 at 06:00
- Modified on 08/17/2023 at 08:00
Read in 4 min.
Migrants land on the beach in Dungeness, England, after being rescued on April 4.
GARETH FULLER/PA PHOTOS/ABC/ANDIA
The scene takes place on August 15 in Grande-Synthe (North). Abdul Saboor, an Afghan refugee-turned-photographer chats with the migrants settled in the camp. Many are waiting to leave for England. “There were about ten Afghans among them who were supposed to board the boat which sank on August 12 but who did not get on because there was no more room,” he explains. I spoke with a young man of 21 who was waiting for news from his smuggler, to find out when he was going to be able to attempt the crossing again. I asked him if he still wanted to leave after this shipwreck. He replied: “Of course it’s dangerous, but that’s how it is, I have no choice.” »
Since 2018, nearly 100,000 migrants have managed to reach England by sea alone. And that’s without counting those, countless, who have tried without succeeding. How to explain that, despite the risks incurred, this desire remains, as if no shipwreck, no hostile policy could discourage the candidates from leaving?
First of all, if there are so many crossings, it is unquestionably because there are smugglers to organize this sea route, whereas securing the tunnel and the port of Calais has made attempts by truck. The first recorded crossing took place in June 2016 when nine Iranian refugees, known to have sewn their mouths shut in protest against the announced dismantling of the “jungle”, helped by a French volunteer, managed to reach the British coast aboard a skiff bought on Leboncoin.
Documentary filmmaker Julien Goudichaud recounts this episode in his book Les Plages de l’embarkation (Éd. Les Arènes). “I saw a lot of migrants without money trying to cross in inflatable boats,” he said. But today, the increase in the flow is largely explained by the fact that the smugglers have continued to professionalize. »
Now, he adds, “the smugglers are far from the coast. On the one hand, they recruit migrants, in exchange for their trip, to bring customers down, to inflate the boat on the beach and to drive it, and on the other hand, European delivery men, to pick up the boats, bought on the Internet, stored in warehouses in Germany. For a boat of 50 people, at a rate of €1,500 per person, they will have a revenue of €80,000 for a maximum of €10,000 to €15,000 in fixed costs. »
But this structured market would not work if it did not meet the desire of migrants to go specifically to the United Kingdom. According to Peter Walsh, senior researcher at the Center on Migration, Policy and Society (Compas) at the University of Oxford, two elements are decisive: “ When interviewing asylum seekers, the two main reasons that decide them to come are the presence of family, of a network, as well as the English language. »
According to a study by this observatory, almost half of residents born outside the United Kingdom have English as their first language. And if the largest communities in the United Kingdom are the Indians, followed by the Poles and then the Pakistanis, other nationalities are emerging as migration progresses, in turn attracting compatriots.
Thus, according to figures from the House of Commons, in 2021 the majority of asylum seekers came from the Middle East and African countries, a pattern that changed in 2022 with the arrival of more Europeans, especially Albanians, who accounted for 16% of asylum applications that same year. “We also have more and more Afghans, and there is a specific Vietnamese sector,” adds Matthieu Tardis, co-founder of Synergies Migrations.
But it is above all the reception conditions, supposedly better than on the continent, in particular the possibility of working and therefore of supporting oneself and those of one’s family, which attract the most. “What those who have arrived in England say is that as soon as they arrive, they are accommodated in small hotels, continues Nicolas Goudichaud. It makes a big difference with France or other countries, where they are often on the street and harassed by the police. They immediately apply for asylum, and even if they don’t have the right to work during this period, everyone does. It seems that they even come to recruit them as soon as they arrive at the hotel. »
“I still have the impression that this idea that it is very easy to work illegally in England is very exaggerated”, warns Matthieu Tardis. According to figures from the European Commission, the informal economy accounts for 9.5% of gross value added in the private sector in the UK, compared to 16.4% in the EU average and 11% in France. In addition, this summer, London decided to triple the fines of bosses who employ people in an irregular situation.
Another specificity is well known to migrants: in the United Kingdom, identity papers are not issued, so the possibility of being arrested for lack of papers, and possibly deported, is much lower than in other countries. such as in France, where checks are frequent. In addition, residence permits are deemed easier to obtain. In England, nearly eight out of ten asylum seekers obtain refugee status, according to Compas, compared to less than four out of ten in France.
Moreover, while within the European Union, any migrant who applies for asylum can only do so in the first country that registered him (in accordance with the Dublin Regulation), Great Britain, which left of the European Union, “is no longer concerned by Dublin”, explains Matthieu Tardis. Many “Dublinized” migrants, therefore, believe that in England they will escape the risk of being sent back to another European country. But this hope is likely to be quickly thwarted: since July, a new law prohibits migrants who have entered the United Kingdom illegally from seeking asylum there.
In fact, explains Pierre Roques, general delegate of L’Auberge des migrants, “there are certainly elements in the desire for England that come from personal choice, but above all there are many things that are suffered”. In a study published in February 2022, anthropologist Marta Lotto, who surveyed the motivations of 57 candidates for the crossing, estimates that for only 31% of those questioned, “there is a ‘United Kingdom project’ which has accompanied them since their departure. For 21%, the United Kingdom was not originally the only option but appeared, after a comparative analysis between the different countries, as “ the country in which it would be easier to obtain papers, to work and to have a better life”.Finally, and above all, for nearly half of those questioned, England represents “a default choice”, a last resort after having tried to settle elsewhere without succeeding.
