Les sans-papiers by Nemorino
One of the fastest ways to unite a squabbling school class is to threaten to throw some of its members out of the country.This banner at the Bullet School (named after Pierre Bullet, a French architect who lived from 1639 to 1716) in the 10th arrondissment reads:
"The Bullet School says NO to the expulsion of the children of the families without papers" followed by the names of some of the kids who are threatened with deportation.
This is currently a big issue in both France and Germany: what to do with people who have lived here for years or decades but do not have the proper paperwork to allow them to stay on permanently.
Prominent reactionary politicians in both countries are trying to have all these people put on planes and sent back to where they came from, err, where their parents or grandparents came from. For the children this would be especially bitter because many of them have lived here for most or all of their lives and don't even know the countries they are being deported to.
In both France and Germany there have been numerous newspaper stories about this in recent months. For a journalist looking for a good story, it is of course ideal if one of the children happens to be a photogenic seventeen-year-old girl who speaks fluent French*, gets straight As in school, is president of the student council and is dating a nice French* boy from a prominent local family. But even if the kids in question are only average or whatever, their classmates are determined not to let them be deported if they can help it.
*Or German, as the case may be.
Second photo: This sign on the City Hall of the 14th arrondissment says: Against the expulsion and for the legalization of the pupils and their families "without papers". (The mayor of the 14th, Pierre Castagnou, is a member of the Socialist Party, otherwise he probably wouldn't have put up that sign.)
Third photo: This "mobilized school" in the Rue Sorbier, 20th arrondissement, declares its solidarity with the people without papers.
