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"""In Britain’s media, ‘Calais’ has become a synecdoche for the influx of refugees into western Europe, and for governmental efforts to control the flow. Hostile and not infrequently racist press coverage of those stranded at the French port as they attempt to travel to England has attracted widespread condemnation from many quarters, including the United Nations, and Anita Howarth and Yasmin Ibrahim perform a valuable service simply by revealing to those who don’t read papers such as the Express and Mail the horrors contained within their pages. However, this book is much more than a critique of hateful press coverage of refugees, and is concerned to put the events being played out at Calais into their full context – namely the history of migrant and refugee politics in Western Europe, and in Britain in particular. In so doing, they demonstrate all too clearly that Britain’s self-image as a centuries-old safe haven for refugees is largely myth and delusion. But they also undertake a fascinating spatial/cultural analysis of the representation of the refugee camps at Calais as ‘jungles’, showing how such a term, with all its connotations of foreignness and danger, helps to produce an understanding of these places’ inhabitants as irredeemably other, and not worthy of even our pity, let alone our assistance. This is an extremely sobering read, which not only throws into sharp relief the cruelty and inhumanity of the UK’s immigration policies, but also raises much wider questions about the efficacy of those much-vaunted ‘European values’ that we hear so much about."" -- Julian Petley, Professor of Journalism, Brunel University London, UK"

In Britain's media, `Calais' has become a synecdoche for the influx of refugees into western Europe, and for governmental efforts to control the flow. Hostile and not infrequently racist press coverage of those stranded at the French port as they attempt to travel to England has attracted widespread condemnation from many quarters, including the United Nations, and Anita Howarth and Yasmin Ibrahim perform a valuable service simply by revealing to those who don't read papers such as the Express and Mail the horrors contained within their pages. However, this book is much more than a critique of hateful press coverage of refugees, and is concerned to put the events being played out at Calais into their full context - namely the history of migrant and refugee politics in Western Europe, and in Britain in particular. In so doing, they demonstrate all too clearly that Britain's self-image as a centuries-old safe haven for refugees is largely myth and delusion. But they also undertake a fascinating spatial/cultural analysis of the representation of the refugee camps at Calais as `jungles', showing how such a term, with all its connotations of foreignness and danger, helps to produce an understanding of these places' inhabitants as irredeemably other, and not worthy of even our pity, let alone our assistance. This is an extremely sobering read, which not only throws into sharp relief the cruelty and inhumanity of the UK's immigration policies, but also raises much wider questions about the efficacy of those much-vaunted `European values' that we hear so much about. -- Julian Petley, Professor of Journalism, Brunel University London, UK

In Britain's media, 'Calais' has become a synecdoche for the influx of refugees into western Europe, and for governmental efforts to control the flow. Hostile and not infrequently racist press coverage of those stranded at the French port as they attempt to travel to England has attracted widespread condemnation from many quarters, including the United Nations, and Anita Howarth and Yasmin Ibrahim perform a valuable service simply by revealing to those who don't read papers such as the Express and Mail the horrors contained within their pages. However, this book is much more than a critique of hateful press coverage of refugees, and is concerned to put the events being played out at Calais into their full context - namely the history of migrant and refugee politics in Western Europe, and in Britain in particular. In so doing, they demonstrate all too clearly that Britain's self-image as a centuries-old safe haven for refugees is largely myth and delusion. But they also undertake a fascinating spatial/cultural analysis of the representation of the refugee camps at Calais as 'jungles', showing how such a term, with all its connotations of foreignness and danger, helps to produce an understanding of these places' inhabitants as irredeemably other, and not worthy of even our pity, let alone our assistance. This is an extremely sobering read, which not only throws into sharp relief the cruelty and inhumanity of the UK's immigration policies, but also raises much wider questions about the efficacy of those much-vaunted 'European values' that we hear so much about. -- Julian Petley, Professor of Journalism, Brunel University London, UK

Author Information

Yasmin Ibrahim is a Reader in Communications at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Anita Howarth is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Brunel University, UK.

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