Le français dans le monde se porte bien

De gauche à droite : Linda Cardinal, de l'Université de l'Ontario français, co-organisatrice de la conférence sur le livre La langue française dans le monde; Alexandre Wolff, responsable de l'Observatoire de la langue française de l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie à Paris; et Richard Marcoux, professeur titulaire au Département de sociologie de l’Université Laval. / Photo: Marguerite Gallorini

La francophonie dans le monde est en croissance, et le français se classe en cinquième position des langues les plus parlées après le mandarin, l’anglais, l’espagnol et l’arabe, avec 300 millions de locuteurs, selon un nouveau rapport.

Le livre intitulé La langue française dans le monde, un rapport publié tous les quatre ans, a pour but de faire l’état des lieux de la langue française dans le monde.

Sa dernière édition présente des résultats positifs pour le français, qui est la langue d’enseignement dans plus de 36 pays et territoires, qui regroupent 80 millions d’individus.

« La langue française progresse, a une dynamique très forte, alors qu’on entend parfois le contraire », dit Alexandre Wolff, responsable de l’Observatoire de la langue française de l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie à Paris et l’un des auteurs de ce livre.

Les chercheurs soulignent que le français n’est pas en concurrence avec l’anglais ou les autres langues, mais qu’il existe « une dynamique plurilingue, et que le français y tient une place importante ». C’est le cas de gens parlant une autre langue à la maison, mais parlant français au travail par exemple.

L’Afrique, le futur du français dans le monde

Le taux de progression du nombre de locuteurs en français est de 10 % en moyenne dans le monde — un taux qui est de 17 % en Afrique subsaharienne. C’est là que se situe l’avenir de la langue française, estime M. Wolff.

Le français est également au deuxième rang des langues les plus apprises comme deuxième langue étrangère, avec des progressions intéressantes, notamment en Afrique subsaharienne, mais aussi au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient, explique le chercheur. Ce sont aussi des endroits où l’usage du français quotidiennement est en hausse.

Sur les 51 millions d’apprenants de français langue étrangère en 2018, 45 % se trouvent au Maghreb et 23 % en Afrique subsaharienne. Aujourd’hui, 60 % des locuteurs quotidiens de français se trouvent en Afrique.

M. Wolff note que l’un des enjeux pour le futur, dans les pays qui ont choisi le français comme langue d’enseignement, sera de savoir si leurs systèmes éducatifs « seront capables d’accueillir les enfants de plus en plus nombreux — et c’est heureux — à aller à l’école ».

Plus de données ailleurs dans le monde

Richard Marcoux, professeur titulaire au Département de sociologie de l’Université Laval et coauteur du livre, explique que pour ce dernier rapport, l’équipe a réussi à réunir plus de données dans d’autres parties du monde au sujet desquelles ils n’avaient pas de données auparavant.

« On savait qu’il y avait des francophones en Russie et lors du dernier recensement russe, [...] on a découvert qu’il y avait 600 000 francophones en Russie, donc c’était vraiment une surprise », confie Richard Marcoux.

Le rapport souligne par ailleurs que le français est également très présent dans les médias internationaux : la chaîne TV5Monde, par exemple, est présente dans 360 millions de foyers dans plus de 200 pays.

Mais d’autres médias, qui ne sont pas issus de pays francophones, ont aussi leurs propres canaux en français : « les Chinois ont leur canal en français, les Russes aussi, les Anglo-Saxons depuis plus longtemps encore : donc ils cherchent à s’adresser à ces populations francophones de plus en plus nombreuses », explique M. Wolff.

M. Marcoux, qui est également directeur de l’Observatoire démographique et statistique de l’espace francophone, se dit encore préoccupé du manque de données dans ces régions moins étudiées en matière de francophonie. « Pour nous, ce qui est important, c’est d’avoir des données probantes ».

Les prochaines étapes seront donc d’obtenir plus de données en Asie et dans les Amériques.

Ce texte a été publié sur CBC/Radio-Canada

Presidential Ideas Festival Kicks Off in Charlottesville

(L to r) CBS correspondent John Dickerson; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley talk about foreign policy on the first day of the Presidential Ideas Festival in Charlottesville. /
Picture: Marguerite Gallorini

The Presidential Ideas Festival kicked off Tuesday [May 21st] in Charlottesville. Organized by the Miller Center and taking place on University of Virginia grounds, the three-day event aims to examine some of the most pressing challenges facing democracy around the world through the lens of the American presidency. WMRA will give you an overview of each day of this event – which will culminate on Thursday afternoon with a closing keynote from President Bill Clinton. Here’s Marguerite Gallorini reporting on the first day.

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1:16

The Presidential Ideas Festival is receiving big local and national figures in Charlottesville. And its first keynote conversation was moderated by CBS correspondent John Dickerson – who is also a UVA graduate. The theme of the discussion was national security and foreign policy, which naturally led to talks of U.S.-China relations. Here’s former national security advisor Stephen Hadley on the issue:

STEPHEN HADLEY: It is true we are going to compete with China. The question is: can we also be strategic cooperators? And we need to be because all those global issues – of terrorism, of environment, of climate change, of water resources – can't be solved by either China or the United States alone.

As for the presidency itself, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright offered insight into the various forces pulling a presidency – forces that can sometimes be at odds.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Foreign policy is not the only thing that a president does. For the most part, domestic policy issues dominate. The only problem is I can guarantee you that the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor never get along except when Henry Kissinger had the same job.

[Laughs from audience]

HADLEY: It's exactly right!

This story appeared on WMRA News.

The Citadel of Besançon, Charlottesville's Sister City

The citadel of Besançon was built in the 17th century by military engineer Vauban, working for the Sun King. In 1959, it was purchased by the city for renovations and to set up museums.
Photo: Marguerite Gallorini

Besançon has been Charlottesville’s sister city since 2006. In spite of their cultural differences, Charlottesville and Besançon are set in similar regions, and have similar vibes. There is one tourist attraction that doesn’t have its equal here though: Besançon’s 17th-century military citadel. Marguerite Gallorini was there over the holiday season and paints this picture for WMRA.

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Welcome to Besançon, Charlottesville’s French sister city. It is situated in the region of Franche-Comté, in the east of France - close to both the German and Swiss borders. The region is somewhat similar to Central Virginia from the start, with predominant wide green patches of fields and forests. Both regions rely heavily on agriculture, and both also produce wine.

[People on the downtown mall]

Like Charlottesville, one of the focal points of Besançon is its university, and a renowned teaching hospital. And like Charlottesville, Besançon has a pedestrian downtown mall, where people like to gather to meet for coffee or for a stroll. Here’s Antoine Naas, an English teacher in the area who’s lived here.

ANTOINE NAAS: I've studied in Besançon for about five years, and it's a beautiful place. Besançon is not a very big city, but there's still a few things to do around, and I really like the look of it with all the white stones.

Unlike Charlottesville, Besançon has its own citadel, a fortress that was built to protect the city. It occupies a strategic position that even Julius Caesar recognized more than two thousand years ago. You may access it by car, or if you’re up for an adventure, by climbing up the stone stairs of the hill on which it rests.

[Walking sounds]

Walking through the main gate, one stumbles upon ostriches and vicunas, small relatives of llamas. A zoo isn’t a usual feature for a citadel, but a popular one, says the site’s heritage interpreter Hermine Chapron.

HERMINE CHAPRON (voiced by Emily Richardson-Lorente): The big hit is obviously the zoo. We do have rare species: Asian lions…

[Roar of the lion]

CHAPRON: Siberian tigers, monkeys from Madagascar...

[Monkeys chirping]

CHAPRON: A lot of people come for the Natural History Museum, and then they discover that it is a rich site with lots of other things to do, so they come back. One day is really not enough to see it all!

The citadel offers three museums – the Natural History Museum, with the zoo; a museum on the history of the region and its traditions; and a Museum of French Deportation and Resistance. There is also an extra room dedicated to the fortifications.

CHAPRON: The citadel was built in the 17th century. It is the work of a military engineer named Vauban who worked for King Louis XIV. The purpose of Besançon's citadel was to protect the city but also to keep watch, because it was a brand new conquest from the Sun King because the region had belonged to the Kingdom of Spain up to then.

Now, since 2008, the citadel is a World Heritage Site. With more than 250,000 visitors each year, it is the most visited site of the region. A lot of them are locals with yearly subscriptions, coming to enjoy the many cultural events organized there or simply to take advantage of the serenity of the place.

Besides locals, 10 to 15% of visitors are foreigners, mainly from neighboring countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands or Germany. Here’s visitor Lina Hilgert.

LINA HILGERT: Hi, I’m from Germany, and I just came here to visit a friend. I didn't know a lot about this region before, but now I visited the museum with my friend and I read all about how it was constructed, about the wars going on in the area and everything.

Some of that history is still recent: the citadel was occupied by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and 100 Resistance fighters were executed there. After the war, the site was used to house more than 6,000 German prisoners until 1948. It is only in 1959 that the city of Besançon purchased the Citadel to start renovations and set up the museums. And more projects are planned.

CHAPRON: We are toying with the idea of creating an Escape Game at the Citadel. Another ongoing project is an app to visit the monument, as well as family investigation games; the idea is to develop other paths to discover all the other areas of interest of the place.

And, how about taking more advantage of the sister city relationship with Charlottesville?

CHAPRON: I think it could be interesting to do more things with our sister city; I know I'd be interested in receiving an American group, for sure!

Thanks to Emily Richardson-Lorente for providing the voice translation for Hermine Chapron.

This story appeared on WMRA News.

Domestic Terrorism Strikes Again

Memorial to Heather Heyer in 4th Street, Charlottesville / Photo: Marguerite Gallorini

It was a rocky start on Saturday in Charlottesville, following violent clashes between White Supremacists and counter -protestors in the morning. After the alt-right protestors were asked to leave the city center to go to McIntire Park, only a small peaceful crowd of Leftist counter-protestors were left marching downtown in the early afternoon.

At around 2 p.m., a car flew into the pedestrian downtown area – through a street where cars usually drive at 5 miles per hour – and plowed into the crowd, killing 32-year old Heather Heyer and wounding 19 others. Had it not hit the two other cars that were at the bottom of the street, it would have continued on its hit-and-run trajectory and certainly killed even more people. Later that day, two State Police officers also lost their lives in a helicopter crash, while they were patrolling the rally.

The State of Virginia has declared a state of emergency following these events. And as a Frenchwoman, the resemblance in the method is strong with the attacks in Nice on Bastille Day last year. So is the resemblance with setting up a state of emergency, as had happened in Paris following the Bataclan attacks on November 13, 2015. I was living in Paris at the time, and now human stupidity has followed me to Charlottesville, VA, of all places.

How does it always require such a level of violence before realizing that something is going wrong? Whether it is Isis or White Supremacist groups, the ideology and process are basically the same: take advantage of a social vacuum, indoctrinate young minds that have not yet fully developed, instill a feeling of fear of losing one’s culture and traditions, and focus it all on a common enemy. There you have it: the perfect recipe for drama. And both in France and here, it is not really as if there weren’t any signs of things possibly going wrong prior to them happening.

Another striking similarity came to my mind: Greece’s Golden Dawn extremist party. Golden Dawn was growing more and more in legitimacy and power several years ago. It won seats in Parliament, their rhetoric was spreading more and more – taking advantage of the deep economic crisis, coupled with the burden of the refugee crisis of which Greece was the first and main filter. And so their Schutzstaffel-style militias grew stronger, very similar to the crowd observed in Charlottesville this weekend: dressed all in black or in military attire, holding rifles, baseball bats, and pepper spray, brandishing Nazi flags, and yelling slurs or giving the finger to “enemies.”

It took the murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in September 2013 by an alleged supporter of the party for the Greek government to wake up and take action. Only then were party leader Michaloliakos and several other Golden Dawn members arrested on suspicion of forming a criminal organization. The trial, which began in April 2015, is still ongoing as of now.

For this weekend, the city of Charlottesville had granted a permit for the alt-right to demonstrate in Emancipation Park – they could not refuse the right to free speech. And so they came, gathering on Friday night – beyond their permit – on the UVa campus with torches, KKK-style, chanting racist slogans. Like dogs peeing all over the neighbor’s lawn to mark their territory.

Now, someone has paid with their life because of a lunatic terrorist who was engrossed beyond reason in his own parallel reality fueled by a hateful ideology. It is time for the government to crack down on the most dangerous individuals in our society, and stop pretending this is only “fringe.” It might once have been, but it is not anymore.

This article was written for this blog only.

Why the French Election Looks Like a Joke

Les trois candidats les plus poplaires dans les sondages, Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron et François Fillon
/ Source: Reinformation.tv

Cases of misuse of power keep piling up on major French candidates – and they could not care less.

Fictitious jobs, partiality, hiding of property assets: the unofficial program of the 2017 French presidential election consists of suspicions at best, judicial investigations at worst. The main right-wing leader up until recently, François Fillon, has been found to employ his wife Penelope and his two children as parliamentary assistants – although Penelope told the Sunday Telegraph in 2007 that she had never been her husband’s assistant. He is, as of today, third in the polls with 21% of voting intentions.

The top two candidates also have dirty hands: Marine Le Pen, who is leading in the polls with 26% for the first round, is under scrutiny for misuse of European parliamentary assistants hired to work on her campaign. The National Front is also suspected of setting up a fraudulent system to finance the party’s campaigns of 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015 – ever since Marine Le Pen became its President. As for the young pro-business candidate Emmanuel Macron, now number two in the polls with 25%, he is suspected of partiality towards the Havas communication counsel company, and conflict of interests with the major Servier laboratory.

It does not stop here: the investigative newspaper “Le Canard Enchaîné” recently published that François Fillon had hidden a 50,000 euro loan (52,725 dollars) from the High Authority for transparency in public life (HATVP), a new and independent anti-corruption body. The Le Pen family has also understated their property assets to the HATVP, sometimes up to two-thirds. If these claims are found to be true, Marine Le Pen could risk up to three years in jail, a 45,000-euro fine (47,432 dollars), and 10 years of ineligibility. Macron has also understated his property money for two years, but was smarter about it and managed to get out of tax adjustment by striking a deal with the tax agency and spontaneously sending a corrective statement for the two understated years.

Are candidates worried at all? It does not look like it. Ahead of his indictment on March 15th, François Fillon claimed during a press conference that he had never been treated fairly by the justice system and that he would “continue until the end” in any case. Marine Le Pen also claims – as is her habit – to be prey to the media’s and judges’ bias against her, and that she would answer to police and judicial summons only after the presidential election. As for Macron, he is suspected of partiality, conflict of interest and– only turbid waters which have not yet turned into a typhoon for him.

Satirical TV shows joke about the morality of this whole situation: “Le Petit Journal” – a French spin-off of the Daily Show - posted on Facebook on March 1st “It is official: François Fillon could not care less. Actually, the whole French electoral season entered a new era that we will call “the era of the ‘could not care less.’” 

The satirical “Groland” show also posted a humoristic video two days later, showing actors getting away with larceny or speeding tickets by applying the philosophy of French presidential candidates: if you say “no matter what, I will continue until the end” or “I don’t want to,” according to the Fillon and Le Pen jurisprudence policemen will not be able to force you to comply and will have to wait for you to finish.

This article was written for this blog only.

Paris: My Big Fat Greek Revival

Fresh vegetables from the Greek-French restaurant "Gallika" in Paris / Picture: Gallika

Greeks in the French capital may not be easy to find. But a growing interest in their culture, following the crisis, might change that.

With the Greek crisis going on since 2008, it is hard to think about Greece in any other way. Yet, Greek culture has influenced, if not created, our Western way of life: and it continues up to now. The Greek diaspora abroad is quite a big phenomenon, all the more so now with the financial crisis. In Paris for instance, contemporary Greek culture might not readily meet the eye; but stopping by any local shop selling Greek food in Paris will prove that Greeks are here, and are fond of making us discover their Mediterranean ways. 

Where are the Greeks?

Sebastian is the son of a Cypriot caterer in Paris, Marios Sofocleou. People pass by, sometimes just to chat, in their 'Apollo' food store in the 18th arrondissement. “The customers who come here are mainly French people from the neighborhood,” he admits. “They might have parents or grandparents who are from there, but they don't speak the language. They love Mediterranean food for sure, everything with olive oil, people always love that. But the real Greek customers are less than ten per day.”

His father migrated in the 1980s: “There were several reasons for his departure – the Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 1974, for starters, and economic reasons. My father lived in the mountain town of Kapilio. A lot of people left to find work in Europe at that time, and since his brother had left to study in France, he followed him.” After his military service at 21 years old, he came to France, dropped out of university early and started working. “Together, they had a good bunch of Greek friends with whom they would hang out all the time. Eventually, he married a French girl.” According to Sebastian, the Greek population was more visible at that time, compared to now.

Indeed the “grassroots” Greek community is not very prominent and its presence in the French capital is only felt if one really looks for it. Data released by the Greek Embassy in Paris in 2014 say there are only 15,000 Greek nationals living in the three French cities of Paris, Lyon and Lille combined. In comparison, 285,703 Algerians live in Paris’ larger metropolitan area alone, according to 2011 Insee data.

And for those who find themselves in Paris and seek to learn about the Greek way of life, Greek shops are really the way to go: forget about the Hellenic Cultural Center. As it turns out, while the center has a perfectly decent website, it does not actually have any physical center to welcome you: their only business offices are located in the same building as the Cyprus Consulate, in the 16th arrondissement. One should not try to e-mail them either: they will not respond. If one calls directly, they will tell you to e-mail them: error 404. "Greek style." 

A small sphere of influence: music and food 

So one can go to the handful of Greek restaurants that survive in the neighborhoods of Saint Michel and Buttes-Chaumont. “I do have a couple of musician friends who play in restaurants here,” says Sebastian. “And my sister has been a part of the 'Parthenon' dance group - a dance academy for Greeks and Serbs - since she was a kid.” Although he was enrolled in a Hellenic school in Buttes-Chaumont for seven years during his childhood, he admits that he has not been keeping up with the cultural trends.

"Parthenon" dancers performing at the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris, 2008 / Picture: Youtube

Buttes-Chaumont does seem to be a small Greek stronghold. One taverna restaurant in particular, 'Ouzeri', is known for the quality of its cuisine and its lively atmosphere. Coincidentally, the closest metro station is Botzaris, as in Markos Botzaris, one of the heroes of Greece's War of Independence in 1821. “A friend of mine played rebetiko there,” says Giannis, an Erasmus student in musicology from Thessaloniki, the second biggest city after Athens. “But I would not say there is that strong of a Hellenic influence in Paris.”

Julien and Jean-Philippe, two French business partners in their thirties, opened a restaurant last summer called 'Gallika,' which means 'French' in modern Greek. Bt the restaurant is not taverna-style: according to them, this concept would not be successful in France – a preconception that Ouzeri's positive reviews seem to challenge.

Julien had never been particularly interested in visiting Greece at first. Then Jean-Philippe took him there on vacation, where they stayed in his family’s house in the small town of Drepano in the southern Peloponnese region. “I fell in love with the country!” Julien admits. “We both loved the conviviality of the place, the good food, the way of life. That’s when we realized we wanted to set up a business to bring this kind of lifestyle to France.” 

Bringing ‘true’ Greek culture to Paris to break down stereotype 

The two Frenchies wanted to “mix modernity with authenticity,” and they go all the way: “everything, besides our fresh vegetables and meat, comes from Greece – our beer and sodas, our pita bread, our oil, our spices... at some point, we would even like to import Peloponnesian lemons. And our cook, Katerina, is from there. She's actually a dancer but works with us on the side to make a little money. We really want it to be, look, and taste real.” While their customers are mainly French people from the neighborhood, they do have Greeks who come in every day.

"Gyros," a Greek specialty and go-to offered at the Gallika restaurant / Picture: Gallika

Through their restaurant, Julien and Jean-Philippe are striving to change people's definition of the Mediterranean country: going from 'crisis-stricken Greece' to 'beautiful and lovable Greece.' “As far as the crisis goes, I think French people compare it to Italy. However, they view this country in a harsher light. It's represented as the black sheep of Europe, the ones for whom we pay, but I think there are more and more people trying to change that image; that's also what we are trying to do.”

“Compared to last year when the country was all over the news and harshly condemned for its crisis, I think there is now a growing empathy for its citizens, for what they are enduring. It might be silly, but I think Greece is starting to finally ‘come out’ thanks to tourism articles published in Elle Magazine, for instance. There are also a couple of specialized grocery stores now, while there were not so much a few years ago. Things are starting to change.” 

Julien firmly believes that an individual’s knowledge of a foreign country’s culture strongly influences the way they perceive its people. Being familiar with cultural elements such as food and music helps to have a deeper understanding of the country as a whole, rather than painting it in black and white. “We just want to remind people that, yes, Greece is cool.”

 

This article was written as a university assignment.

French Perspectives on the American Election

Presidential candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton / Image: Rich Girard / Flickr

During her summer internship at WMRA Marguerite Gallorini, who is from France, has been exploring the differences, and similarities, between the ways that Americans and the French approach today’s world.  In the last few weeks, that’s included the global refugee crisis, and how we view work and vacation time.  Today, Marguerite has some insight on how the American presidential election campaign is being viewed from the French perspective.

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4:39

Julia Brown, a graduate student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, a top research and public administration school, discusses the focus on personal background versus political background:

JULIA BROWN: Apparently everybody hates Hillary Clinton, which I really can't understand why at this point; and not everybody hates Trump, which I really can't understand why either. The thing is with this election there hasn't really been any debate regarding ideas. It's all been about personalities.

Mathieu Perrot, a French teacher and Ph.D. student in literature at UVa, agrees:

MATHIEU PERROT: Yeah the persona, the charisma is probably more important here than in France, I would say. French people might be more interested in... maybe not the program itself, probably not, but at least, maybe more fascinated by the career or the studies that the person would have made.

French people tend to make analogies between Donald Trump and some French politicians, like former right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy, or Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right party National Front. But French observers see some differences.

PIERRE GERVAIS: I wouldn't compare Trump to Marine Le Pen. I mean I'm no fan of Marine Le Pen, but she's a professional politician and she knows what she's doing.

That's Professor Pierre Gervais, who specializes in American politics and economy at the Sorbonne University in Paris. For the record, the National Front was once led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of current leader Marine Le Pen.

GERVAIS: Actually they got rid of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who in terms of behavior, was actually close to Trump. It became clear that they couldn't function efficiently in the French system with somebody who's not at least serious-looking.

Gervais also points out that the French party system makes for a government less dominated by the two main left and right parties, and relying more on coalitions.  That way it allows for more representation and party diversity. Also, the election of party leaders is internal to parties in France, not up for popular election as in the U.S. primary system. So for both historical and sociological reasons, the possibility for a politician like Trump to become the national leader is  less likely in France. Now, would the outcome of this election influence the French one?

PERROT: The election in the U.S. is important for the entire world, that's for sure. Because of the partnership we have with this country, because of the trade we have with the country... And I'm pretty sure politicians in France are watching very closely the debates and how it goes here. I don't know about the coming election if Sarkozy will try to imitate Trump in some ways. Hopefully not!

But according to Professor Gervais and Serena Albert, a marine biologist graduate from the Sorbonne University, this interest in U.S. elections is not that influential:

SERENA ALBERT: I wouldn't say that they influence really... What I hear in the media, or from people that I talked to, they're much more concerned about French problems.

GERVAIS: The French are fairly insular. The little I've read, there's a mixture of sort of fear to a certain extent, amusement, and very little understanding of what's going on. There is this apprehension of... “what would happen if they actually elected Trump?” but since at this point the election of Trump is very highly unlikely. You do get coverage, but not that much.

BROWN: What I'm hoping is, if Trump does get elected, maybe French people will be afraid of voting for our own extreme right party... I'm hoping he's giving us an example of what not to do.

French elections are less than a year away, with the first round coming up in April 2017.  Chloe Bertholon, a French-American business student at UVa, is excited because it is the first year she will be able to vote in both elections.

CHLOE BERTHOLON: I think it is interesting though that the American process is drawn out to be so, so, so long, whereas the French process seems to be much shorter. I told my grandma in France that I was going to be in Lyon for their elections, and she was like “oh yeah, that is coming up, huh,” whereas for us it’s like... the past year, we've been talking about it.

Whatever the American election outcome may be, they all said they were going to miss Barack Obama.

ALBERT: Well, I'm not really really not convinced by Trump, but I'm not really convinced by Hillary Clinton either, so … I think that in any case, it won't be for a better change.

This story appeared on WMRA.org
Download the original podcast at Through Gallo Eyes Media.

The Global Refugee Crisis, in a Small French Town

Saint-Loup's city hall / Picture: Marguerite Gallorini

Most of us learn about the global refugee crisis through news coverage rather than personal experience.  WMRA has been telling the stories of many refugees who have settled in Virginia. But what is the refugee experience in quieter parts of the world, far from the global media's attention? WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini takes us to her rural hometown in the east of France, called Saint-Loup.

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4:50

[Bells sound]

Meet Hebaj Bore…

HEBAJ BORE (as read by Emily Richardson-Lorente): I am 37, married; I have two children, a boy and a girl. I have been in France for two and half years.

… And Arjeta Gjoni.

ARJETA GJONI (as read by Emily Richardson-Lorente): I am an Albanian language and literature teacher. I am 33 years old, and arrived in France on September 8, 2013.

Arjeta and Hibaj are both Albanian refugees resettled to Saint-Loup, a small town close to the German and Swiss borders. Due to security reasons, they preferred not to reveal why they fled their country.

Out of the city's thirty-five hundred inhabitants, about 100 are asylum seekers. Many now come from Syria, but they also come from Kosovo, Russia, or – like Hebaj and Arjeta – Albania. They are usually fleeing war, starvation, or persecution. In addition to this, Hebaj could not visit her father before he died four months ago. That is a lot to deal with psychologically, says Saint-Loup’s Mayor Thierry Bordot.

BORDOT (as read by Jordy Yager): Sometimes we even encounter problems of a psychiatric nature, in families who already have gone through tragedies in their lives, and when they leave their country it can be in very challenging conditions. This psychological welcoming is still, in my opinion, something to be improved, so that we can really allow them to thrive faster in our country.

And while Arjeta's asylum request has just been granted, Hebaj is not done yet.

BORE: I still don't have legal papers. I am waiting... I’m hoping it will come one day!

Her nervous laugh hides a deeper anxiety. Procedures to become legalized are becoming increasingly clogged and can take up to two years, or more.  It all begins with the OFPRA – the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and the Stateless, which is in charge of examining the legitimacy of asylum requests.

Then, the French Ministry of the Interior determines how and where asylum seekers are to be resettled. In that process, Mayor Bordot says that, by law, he is out of the loop.

BORDOT: It is all dealt with internally, between the State services and private and public landlords. I guess it could be explained by a kind of mistrust of local powers, which would not deliberately want to welcome that many refugees if they had a say in it.

Not every request is granted though – because of insufficient proof of danger to the asylum-seekers in their home countries, for instance. Critics say the OFPRA even turns down valid requests. According to the French newspaper Les Echos, while other European countries usually grant 45% of asylum requests, France grants only 22% of them. So… What becomes of these denied refugees?

BORDOT: Then, families can be taken back to the border – but it is not always implemented because, on a human level, when you have to deal with families with children, it is always complicated to use the public force to expel these families. So in general, the State lets things run their course.

[bell signaling the start of class]

We are now at Saint-Loup's primary school, with headmistress Anna Breysse. She tells me about the on-line State database called Casnav, which provides official documents translated into the refugees' language. But she admits she doesn't use it often.

ANNA BREYSSE: I think that to integrate them, nothing's better than approaching them directly and talking to them – even if it's in broken English, even if they don't understand 100% of the conversation. I think it's better to create a human bond than give them a piece of paper, very well written in their language, sure, but which once again places a barrier. So with them, we have erased all written communication... and we try to choose them in priority for school trips – it's a way to show them they are valued.

Refugees take French classes four times a week, and their lodgings are close to the city hall and primary school, which facilitates their social integration. That way, as Arjeta and Hebaj are finding, other parents interact easily and keep them and other refugees in the loop.

GJONI: There is everything here. A lot of solidarity, a lot of people help asylum seekers... There are also much more activities for children here. We found a lot of good things in Saint-Loup.

Their children don't find it too hard to make new friends in spite of language. But in the classroom, French remains their biggest challenge. So in Saint-Loup, an external part-time teacher comes twice a week to help refugee children study according to their needs. This proves to be efficient: after only a few months, they can integrate a normal class.

[children during a classroom activity]

For now, Hebaj hopes to be legalized soon; and as for Arjeta, she wishes to continue working with children, just like she did in Albania. In the meantime, the European Commission now wants to reform the current system to standardize and streamline procedures across Europe, to make it easier for everyone.

This article and podcast appeared on WMRA.org.

Download it on Through Gallo Eyes Media.