In order to connect theory to practice, the PPS Edges of Europe students, who had spent the last semester studying the history, theories, politics, and policies of refugees in Europe, embarked on a study trip at the start of May 2026. Departing very early on a Monday morning, they arrived in Calais, France, to volunteer and work at the warehouse (L’Auberge des Migrants), which hosts nine diverse and inspiring grassroots based NGOs, all dedicated to supporting refugees who have travelled from across the globe at great financial, familial, and personal cost. These refugees are temporarily residing in Calais, preparing to make the crossing to the UK in the hope of a more humane life.
Edges of Europe: From the Classroom to Calais
The students impressed everyone at the warehouse with their hard work, in-depth questions, and desire to help and learn. They cooked meals for refugees, organized clothing and other material needs, prepared wood to keep them warm on cold nights, and checked tents — often those left behind by summer festival-goers — to ensure there were no holes, broken zippers, or missing poles, as these tents can make a life-changing difference for many refugees in Calais.
The students also visited the city of Calais, the beaches where refugees risk their lives to make the crossing, the commemoration sites, and cemeteries for those who die trying. They saw the sites all over the city that the police have built to prevent refugees from resting, as well as the living site that currently hosts between 800 and 1,000 refugees. There, the students helped clean and care for the site, allowing them to connect, albeit with many linguistic and privilege barriers, with the refugees themselves.
On their final day, they travelled together to Brussels to visit the European Union, where they had a tour and presentation, discovering many interesting facts that are often excluded from official publications. The students also organized interviews with European NGOs based in Brussels who work on the topic of refugees, asylum seekers, and the broader themes of inclusion and exclusion in and from Europe. They asked critical, engaging, and brilliant questions, impressing those they interviewed.
Now back in the classroom, the students are weaving these experiences into their final papers and presentations, connecting the dots between philosophy, politics, and praxis at the edges of Europe. When they gathered to reflect on the trip, they shared what this trip meant to them saying: the journey had been intense, educational, emotional, and an example of transformative pedagogy in action.
The trip to Calais and Brussels left an impression that I will never forget and re-shaped the way I think and read about refugees in the broadest sense of that word.
Our trip to Calais and Brussels with the Europe's Edges class is an experience unlike anything I have done at either Radboud or Utrecht University. At one point, while we were constructing tents, I managed to repair an extra pole, and someone pointed out that I just bought an entire person a place to sleep for a while. This is the first time I have ever felt like labour I was doing was directly impactfully meaningful.
The field trip to Calais was an activity dense experience that shed a different and more clear light on the border situation that I am very grateful for. It was the first time that our readings were actualized.
The trip to Calais cracked open the shell of the media and all the illusions for me. Inside there was reality; they are just people, such as we all are, why are they treated so differently, when they are just so the same?
Rising polarised views in the current world require us to be more informed and this trip was of paramount importance to make a critical view on current widespread views. I took it as a duty to attend it. I experienced solidarity in every field among students and with NGOs members in Calais and Brussels. It was an enriching human experience. The class without this trip would have been incomplete, combining theoretical knowledge and practical issues is the bond needed between university and work life.
I joined Europe’s Edges because of my background in cultural anthropology, to support the students with the qualitative research component of the course. I was impressed by the students’ willingness to work hard and take initiative. In my view, this resulted in meaningful conversations, insightful interviews, and a lasting motivation to continue learning and engaging with the subject.
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