MLK Day Prize: Education Without Borders Network

I just got back from the national meeting of the Education Without Borders Network in pretty Amiens, France (most famous for its marvelous cathedral). The marvel is really the existence of the network and the work it does protecting undocumented students and their families. These citizens would make Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., proud. (Happy birthday, MLK!)

Their logo above explains a lot of how they see things. The police are taking children out of classrooms, putting them in handcuffs, and deporting them. Legal protection of children is taken seriously here, and deportation evokes World War II trains heading to concentration camps to the east. So, when Sarkozy took over as Minister of the Interior in 2004 (again) and introduced new overzealous immigration measures, a mass of teachers, parents, unions,and other organizations came together to form the Network.

Who can imagine a classmate shackled and led to a plane while the other students in the class recite the national motto: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity?

So the network came together by 2004, and a most quintessential action took place in the neighborhood where I do my field work, in the spring of 2007. Three police cars arrive to take away a grandfather who was waiting for his grandson to come out of elementary school (this was a policy put in place with Sarkozy as Minister of the Interior). As you can see in the video, a crowd crystallizes instantly, and forms a barrier to prevent the police from leaving with the grandpa. They have whistles, and even lay out in the street to prevent the police cars from taking off. There are a few videocameras filming and you can watch the episode here and here.  The resistance to the police tactics is effective in the end, and the grandpa is released.     

An Undocumented Youth= A Stolen Youth

Teachers and parents of the network are active in schools, give advice to kids and their families. They 'godparent' students and families in the municipal halls. Entire schools mobilize to support a single undocumented student! They travel together to the courtroom or to the police headquarters in an extraordinary show of solidarity. And this apprenticeship into citizenship is didactic, providing real-life experiences of how democracy works. On a more personal level, I also hear from kids about how they feel included, how the stigma recedes, and how they are inspired to become French.   

Who’s to say to these kids they are not integrated, when they have the community in the streets on their behalf? 

Thanks to Amiens for having us and to the Lukowskis for the hospitality! 

13th century Cathedral of Amiens