Compassion and risk
Reporters on the Job: In reporting the story on the renewed debate in France over illegal migration (read the story here), I spoke with many committed people who identified with the character in the new film, 鈥淲elcome,鈥� who gets caught up in the plight of a young illegal immigrant.
A Parisian named Ga毛lle, for example, has taken under her wing the Chinese parents of one of her son鈥檚 kindergarten classmates. Two weeks ago she rounded up friends to protest at the police station when the immigrant father was arrested, and she is helping them navigate the French bureaucracy to request legal status.
鈥淚 know there is a risk that I could get in trouble,鈥� Ga毛lle told me. 鈥淏ut it felt better to help them. In my head, it was better to help than to do sit and do nothing.鈥�
