Seeking Refuge: Migrants say 'no thanks' to EU distribution plans
Hundreds of black and blue tarps, many with thatched roofs, vie for space in this port city’s migrant camp, a testament to the powerful flow of human migration across Europe this year.
The population of Jungle 2, as it's called, surged from 1,000 to 3,000 in the three months after spring broke, the typical annual pattern. Residents have built more than homes: makeshift churches, schools, and even restaurants selling chicken skewers and chai tea dot Jungle 2.
Camps like this are spurring some European nations to push for what they're calling burden sharing, particularly Italy and Greece. Unsurprisingly, many of the less affected countries are opposed, arguing they have neither the infrastructure nor the resources to house and care for asylum seekers.
But they have surprising allies in their opposition: the migrants themselves.
Even as Europe's leaders debate, refugees are focused on finding jobs and establishing community bonds. And it's not that they don't want to move on from the poorer southern European countries hosting them. But what they don't want is to farmed out to even poorer country's still instead of being settled in richer states like the UK or German.
“A human being has his life plans … and wants to go to the country where he has the best future,” says Alberto Achermann, a migration law expert at the University of Bern in Switzerland. ...
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