The Policy and Politics of Refugees: A conversation with Pascal Brice (Part 1)

Pascal Brice is the Executive Director of France’s Office of Protection for Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA). He was invited to the University of Chicago by The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and sat down with Prabhat Singh to discuss the refugee crisis in Europe from a French perspective. This is part one of the conversation, focusing on the integration of refugees into French society. You can find part two of the interview here, and listen to the full conversation at the University of Chicago Public Policy Podcasts (UC3P).

Hillary Clinton, in her latest interview to The Guardian, said that: “Europe must get a handle on immigration because that is what lit the flame.” She adds: “Europe must send a very clear message–we are not going to be able to provide refuge and support.”

Clinton likely meant that European nations should not shelter refugees because, even though it may be the right thing to do, it often leads to ultra-nationalist parties winning elections by campaigning on this one agenda, ultimately undoing whatever good might have been done. Do you think this is a fair assessment of her statement? If so, how do you balance helping refugees with the very likely harm that results from it?

As the head of OFPRA, my only goal is to make sure that in France, asylum laws apply as they should. I do believe that in Europe, at least, we have to be very clear and lucid with what we do regarding refugees. What does being lucid mean? Two things: one, we cannot lose. We cannot lose the humanitarian values that are not just French, or European, but global. It’s key that we welcome people who have been persecuted because of their religion, political views, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc.

Secondly, we also have to be mindful of the context in which we’re operating. The context is that people have fears ranging from culture to identity. In order to defend asylum properly, you have to take these realities into account. I’ll give you an example. A few days ago, I was in a little village in France’s eastern region of Alsace. OFPRA has set up refugee accommodation centers in that village of about 500 people, of whom about 55 percent are refugees. The mayor of the region told me that in the beginning it was hard to bring refugees there. But the mayor and other French officials did their job in this case, and now there are no worries. The local people and the refugees coexist peacefully. So, we have to be organised in our approach while defending asylum and taking realities into account, but we must continue to defend asylum at all costs.

You touched upon a very important topic of a little village in France. I feel that in such situations, ultra-nationalist parties can further exploit the situation if the refugees are not well integrated into the mainstream. In this regard, France has had some problems in the past. The refugee situation in Calais got a bad name internationally, and media reports claim that a lot of refugees in France want to go to either the UK or Germany because they believe they can find better work or educational opportunities. Do you think this is a concern for France? If so, what are the steps being taken to improve the situation?

There are many challenges to defending asylum, in France and everywhere else. First, we have to make sure that people can apply for asylum as per the Geneva Convention. Secondly, you’re absolutely right that they have to be integrated. In 2015, in the very heart of the refugee crisis in Europe when over one million people arrived in the continent, I discovered that in places like Calais (where many people were camped to leave France for UK) there were not just asylum-seekers but even refugees who had already gotten recognition from OFPRA. It was around this time that the French government started building an integration policy for refugees. This involves training in language and common values.

Coming back to Calais, towards the end of 2016 there were about 3,000 people living in a slum. Between 2014 and 2016 I visited Calais nearly every week with my team to convince people there–young men and families from Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Eritrea and others–to seek asylum in France. And we succeeded. Those people were camped there waiting to go to UK across the English Channel, but the UK didn’t want to welcome them. So, it was my duty to convince them to stay back in France. For over two years, I worked with my team to convince nearly 10,000 people to go to different accommodation centers all over France. We are very proud of that. You have to make sure that people can easily apply for asylum and must be accommodated while their applications are being decided upon. If their application is accepted, they must be brought under the integration policy.

Read part two of the interview here, and listen to the full conversation at the University of Chicago Public Policy Podcasts (UC3P).

Featured photo: cc/(cloverphoto, photo ID: 921339356, from iStock by Getty Images)