Emergency Public Measures and Improvised Humanitarian Solutions: The Genesis of ‘Reception and Orientation Centres’ in the Calais Crisis

Abstract

In 2015, ‘Reception and Orientation Centres’ were devised as a measure to relocate migrants in order to reduce the encampment known as the Calais Jungle by offering shelter on a voluntary basis. Initially conceived as a temporary measure and targeted for a specific crisis situation, since then more than 200 centres of this type have been opened in different locations in France – sites which were used to disperse the inhabitants of the Calais camp during its final evacuation. Tracing the genesis of these centres is an opportunity to examine the implementation of ad hoc policies designed in emergencies, and their subsequent integration into a national policy for the distribution of asylum seekers around the country. The creation of this measure, at the intersection of public order and humanitarian issues, sheds light on the effects of temporality on public action and on the practices of governmental agencies.