Taking that a little further, Backwoodsman.

Let us focus on just that section who have for to Calais and still want to get to the UK. why don't they just stop in France?


well, a lot do, as BWM said. Then again as he said, the UK has a history of tolerance. while we have plenty to worry about here with racial attacks we are still a more welcoming country in many respects. For example, France has laws banning the hijab in public. Whatever you may think about that, these migrants have lost home, family, and jobs. Almost all they have left is their sense of identity. And banning the hijab takes even that away from them.

When Belsen-Bergen was freed by the allies there were lots of things sent to their aid: food, clothes, medicine. One day they recieved a large box of lipsticks. The initial response was, in modern terminology WYF? But afterwards some of the people involved said it was the single most important parcel they recieved because it gave the women back a sense of identity" they were women again, not objects.

It does not do to underestimate the importance of the sense of identity; it can outweigh everything else. In some ways, that is the real driving force of Brexit for many people.