Refugee Portraits in Paris and the Calais Jungle

While it began as a question of temporary resettlement and provision of basic needs for the almost 5 million refugees in key European port cities, the Syrian refugee crisis has progressed far beyond the boundaries of traditional immigration politics; it has redefined global human rights standards, strained international relations, and eroded Islamic integration progress in Western Europe. Nowhere are the struggles of Syrian refugees more prominent than in France, which has one of Europe's largest Muslim populations, but is renowned for its commitment to secularism and tense relationship with the Muslim community, especially after the Paris terror attacks in 2015.

In the Winter of 2016, I analyzed the effectiveness of these terrorist attacks in influencing economic and security policy, and altering the trajectory of electoral politics by tracking shifts in French public opinion. This summer, I will be researching the social impact of the terrorist attacks and rising Islamaphobia on Syrian refugees in Paris and Calais. I will expose the dismal reality of their living conditions and social status in one of the world's wealthiest nations through a piercing photographic journal of refugees. This expose is composed of two elements - a compilation of Refugee portraits across Paris and the Calais "Jungle", plus an extended report that provides more context to the issue of poverty, intolerance, and social hardships of refugees in France.