Space and the Migrant Camps of Calais: Space-Making at the Margins

Abstract

In this paper we examine the concept of space construction through the cross-border tensions presented by the refugee settlement dubbed the ‘Jungle in Calais’. Calais has been the focal point of debates about illegal entry to the United Kingdom. The Jungle as a physical entity is drawn into space making in a multitude of ways which are complex and intertwined. We examine space construction and human migration and how space becomes continually redefined and reconstructed through the interaction of the corporeal body with the physical environment, media frames, policy discourses and cross border patrol. Space functions more than a metaphor to become a heuristic entity where its binary construction and destruction have consequences for shaping human empathy in immigration debates.