Porte de la Chapelle. Danika Jurisic/All rights reserved.
At the crossroads
Porte de la Chapelle is a large and unsightly crossroads on the edge of the Périphérique ring-road, where the city of Paris meets the beginning of the sprawling banlieues. To the south, the main road into central Paris leads to the budding hipster bars and more established African markets of the 18e Arrondissement. The shiny white wedding-cake dome of Sacré Coeur glimmers to the west, above dejected tower blocks and social-housing estates, while ramps rise to the north to connect with motorways heading towards Lille, Calais, England. And to the east, grey, neglected buildings gradually transform over a kilometre or so into the smart new area of Rosa Parks, where new, generously proportioned flats are clad in extravagant silver or floral decor.
Porte de la Chapelle is a gathering place for the ‘new’ migrants and refugees of Paris – the ones people mean when referring to the ‘crisis’ – although it’s not the only one. Across the city there is an untold number of people in transit. Pushed back from the UK border by the Calais evictions last October, many hope to move on to Germany or Sweden, or simply seek to somehow negotiate the obstacles of the over-stretched French asylum system and the Dublin Agreement. If your fingerprints have been taken in another European country, you have little chance of remaining ‘officially’ in France.
