• RedCoat [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    the forces that made them want to leave their home country in the first place

    Especially relevant considering these were African migrants and it's in France, the Western country still most involved in trying to run large parts of Africa like a colony.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It isn't even as though the French don't have a ravenous demand for cheap African labor. The state bureaucracy just loves to haze southern migrants as a kind-of ritualized punishment for crossing Mediterranean.

      As soon as they're legalized, they get snapped up by employers hungry for below-market rate talent and desperation-driven hard work. They rapidly urbanize their corners of the city and boost the flagging economy. Their kids leap head first into the local culture, excited to fit in. They pay far more than their fair share of taxes, they're far less likely to commit crime, they outperform in school, and they generally make the country happier, healthier, and wealthier.

      French authorities just feel the need to kick them in the ribs for a year or a decade or a lifetime, because they can.