“Out of Sight”

This study focuses on the social and physical infrastructures in the region of Calais in North of France and how they influence solidarity between the host community and the refugees living in the informal settlement. The study is important because there is increasing border violence and deaths that remain unseen. The main research question: “What is the role of infrastructures, determined or limited by securitization, in shaping interactions, cooperation, and solidarity between the host community and informal migrant settlements?” is addressed through an ethnographic method including observations, informal conversations and semi-structured interviews looking at the case study of Calais. There is a lack of interactions between refugees and the local community due to the hostile environment affecting both. Moreover, when solidarity does emerge it does so through local initiatives that manifest into grassroot humanitarian organizations, characterized by their informality, independence of funding from states and their network of solidarity. The latter intersects with the politics of securitisation visible through Necropolitics that is translated in border violence. This makes it difficult for solidarity’s sustainability, however their infrastructures delegitimize the state’s logic. This paper recommends establishing a legal and safe way to seek asylum in the UK through an asylum center in France where the UK has externalized its borders. Moreover, the investments should be redirected from re-bordering to programmes prioritizing care and inclusion. At last, actors of the borders should be trained to work within this particular context. Implementing these measures would lead the way for a cooperative migration system.