The Heartfelt Work of Stéphanie Besson and Tous Migrants (We Are All Migrants), Part 2 of 2

Another avenue of Stéphanie Besson’s outreach and education efforts regarding refugees is her book “To Find a Refuge: Stories from Across Borders.” We were delighted to learn more about the work. “About the book, I would like to say that it is a polyphonic book, in that 56 people express themselves through the book. Lots of stories are intertwined. It's not just my own diary; and beyond the borders, there are geographical borders, but also cultural borders, administrative borders, mental borders that we build for ourselves.”

Edwy Plenel is an award-winning French journalist who is in full support of the work being carried out by We Are All Migrants. “Tous Migrants (We Are All Migrants) for me, it embodies on earth what is embodied by SOS Méditerranée at sea. Sailors, mountain dwellers meet an elementary principle that when someone is drowning, when someone gets lost in the mountains, we stretch out a hand to him. We don't request his passport. We don't ask him where he comes from. We don't ask him if he is legal. We just save him. And by saving him, we save ourselves.”

Mr. Plenel shared a story from long ago that serves to remind us that with an unexpected change of circumstances, any of us could essentially become a refugee and suffer the pain of being unwelcome. But kindness is the powerful balm that forges hospitality, hope and humanity.

Through acts of kindness and humanity, Stéphanie Besson, We Are All Migrants volunteers, supporting organizations and the hospitable Briançon residents help refugees create a brighter vision for the future. “We won't stop immigration. With the facts, we'll have to sit pragmatically around a table and ask, ‘So, what are we doing?’ Otherwise, we don't welcome them properly, and then after a while, they will be filled with resentment, and then for sure they can expect they will be living in precarious conditions. Precariousness and resentment, what do they generate? They generate wars, lines of division, tensions. So don’t we want to act today for social peace tomorrow, and for dignity and to be able to look at our children saying that we have built a better world? At least we have done humanely what we could do to create social peace.”