Left: a trinket seller. Center: white, the color of royalty. Right: the Parisian Statue of Liberty.

Paris is torn.
Torn between a massive push to welcome more tourists, and efforts to deflect migrants and refugees to other destinations.

Interviewed by Antoine Asseraf and Rene Habermacher.
Transcribed and edited by Edward Siddons.
Editorial assistants Thibault Della Gaspera, Marion Louapre, Sebastien Macher.
Thanks to Nassim Majidi, Mehrdad Pourzaki, Jean-Michel Centres and Ali.

Photography by Rene Habermacher.

Left: Blue, the color of the Seine. Center: rules of the refugee squat. Right: a trinket seller.

New hotels, art museums, concert halls, festivals, the largest AirBNB selection in the world, a bid for the Olympics, training the French to smile… To recapture the crown of the number one tourist destination from London, nothing is unthinkable.

Yet, in the city where the Statue of Liberty was conceived and built, a concerted effort is also made to repel those who would want to settle more permanently – among them refugees. A few hundred metres from the Sacré Coeur, sheltered spaces underneath the metro tracks are being permanently blocked to prevent anyone seeking sanctuary.

Left: Ali, a refugee. Center: trinkets for sale. Right: Red.

Borders are overrated, François Gemenne has concluded. Executive director of the Politics of the Earth program at Sciences Po Paris and author of the Atlas of Environmental Migration, Gemenne concluded from his studies that borders do little to reduce the number of migrants, only increasing the number of deaths. … For this advocacy of opening borders for refugees, he has received death threats.

François Gemenne.

Did you choose Paris or did Paris choose you?

I think it was a bit of both! I’d always been attracted to Paris though it’s a city that I didn’t really know. Despite being Belgian, I had only visited a couple of times as a tourist before moving here in 2007 for family and professional reasons. I was pleased with the choice. I was in London before, but it was a refreshing change.

Which begs the question, London or Paris?

They’re very different cities but I think the quality of life in Paris is much higher than in London: the transportation system is better, the banks are better, less traffic. Paris is walkable: it’s a much more concentrated city without the spread and sprawl of London. Paris wins hands down in terms of quality of life.

“Paris wins hands down in terms of quality of life.”

There might be more cultural events or dynamism in London, but I think it depends firstly on your age, and secondly on the money you have.

What does it mean to be a Parisian?

I know rude Parisians, polite Parisians, busy Parisians, lazy Parisians – I’m not sure we can establish a set of Parisian characteristics.

It might have been the case years ago, but the city has been so transformed by immigration and other factors that we can no longer say the city is this or that. That’s what makes it a great city: the diversity of the people.

Where is the center of Paris?

I think the center has probably moved to the suburbs. Some Parisians do not consider what’s beyond the périphérique to be the real Paris, but it is: it might not be the Paris from the postcards, but this is where the people live and they are what make Paris. Paris is beautiful, but the challenge is not to make the city only an open-air museum, as beautiful as it might be.

A trinket seller.

You say Paris has been radically changed by immigration. Is this a recent phenomenon, or is it more related to a broader historical context?

Well, there are different flows of immigration with different effects. First and foremost, there is significant immigration of the French into Paris: many Parisians were not born in Paris.

Then there is immigration from abroad, and throughout its history the city has always been built by different flows of international immigration. Initially it was mostly European immigration, then predominantly North African and Sub-Saharan African migrants. Then more recently we have seen flows from other countries, and these flows will renew Paris and restore its dynamism.

If Paris wants to affirm itself as a real global city as London and New York have, it must keep attracting immigrants. This ties into the importance of reconnecting the suburbs with the city and keeping housing affordable.

I’m worried that Paris is becoming less and less welcoming and affordable to blue collar and poor migrants. There is a tendency to try and attract rich investors, but that isn’t enough to keep a city alive.

Where do you see Paris in five or ten years?

I think Paris in terms of local governance has the potential to thrive: what concerns me most is the wave of racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in France today, and not only in France but throughout Europe. Social cohesion will be a real challenge for Paris, as will remaining appealing to migrants. When I hear of current migration policies and the current state of the public debate on these issues, I’m concerned that in five or ten years France might not be attractive for the migrants anymore and that would mean the death of Paris.

Multiculturalism is a challenge that Paris needs to embrace. It cannot just position itself as an open-air museum or a beautiful city – that’s not going to be enough. If Paris wants to become a global city, a global hub, it will need to embrace the concept of multiculturalism and reconcile itself with its immigrants. It needs to realize that the diversity and dynamism of the city is thanks to immigration.

“Multiculturalism is a challenge that Paris needs to embrace.”

The Parisian Statue of Liberty in its city of origin, Paris.

But do you think you can separate attractiveness to tourists and to migrants?

Well, Paris could become like Versailles, somewhere you visit briefly for the museums and attractions – which is maybe a little too harsh an assessment of Versailles – but I don’t think Paris should want to just be that.

Both [tourism and immigration] are important, and are necessarily linked. A symbol of this is the RER B [train] that goes from Charles de Gaulle to the center. The train, and the mess that it is, is a symbol of how France has not yet fully understood that both tourists and immigrants are important to the city. There is always that awkward situation of tourists filling the whole train as it leaves the airport, but then stopping at every station picking up suburban workers on the way to the center. Parisians don’t understand why there are so many tourists, and the tourists don’t understand why the train keeps stopping.

The train is a symbol of the difficulty in assimilating both of these populations, and realizing that each one should enrich the other.

Isn’t the vision or dream of Grand Paris, the integrated, centralized city very French? Los Angeles and other cities have given up on that vision.

Yes, it’s very much part of the French tradition, and one must recognize and acknowledge that. The development of London, LA, and now New York with the growth of new hubs in Brooklyn and Queens has avoided centralization. But in France, there’s a tradition of having a clearly identified center.

I think Paris will continue in that vein. I think the notion of centrality is a fantasy, a fantasy I like. I like the idea that everything can happen in the same place. What are sometimes seen as the inconveniences of the French love of centralization also come with a huge range of benefits.

All trains stop at the same station: you cannot go through Paris, which is a major difference compared to other cities. It’s the start or the end of journey, not a midpoint. It needs to be aware of that and play it as an asset.

“The war on migrants they are waging is absolutely shameful.”

Left: rules of the refugee squat. Center: anti-refugee barriers. Right: François Gemenne.

What’s your take on the management of asylum seekers ?

I think it’s a shame. It’s a slap in the face of migrants, of Europe, and of the European spirit. It makes me ashamed of my own government. The war on migrants they are waging is absolutely shameful.

We need to realize that migration is a structural phenomenon that you cannot prevent, limit or strictly regulate: it’s not by closing a border that you control migration. It doesn’t work like that.

Governments need to accept that migration is not determined by their policies, but by structural factors beyond their control. We need to realize that it is not only a structural reality but also a fundamental right, and that it is an asset, especially for large cities.

Blue, one of the colors of Paris.

It seems that the French are more resistant to change. Would you agree?

I think it’s important that France accepts the idea that change is not a threat. Accepting the idea that one cannot control everything is also probably for the best, as much when we consider architecture and design as when we consider immigration.

Sometimes, there is an obsession with keeping things the way they are or have been without thinking deeply about whether the status quo is really that good.

Why are people so afraid of your proposal for free migration without national borders?

Because they think it would change everything, that opening borders would represent a major change in everything they know. To which I have two things to say: the opening of the borders would not change everything, it would just make things so much easier for everyone. And secondly, that the change is maybe not the threat they think it is, and that it can be extremely positive for them. Only once change happens can you understand how great it is.

We’ve all experienced not wanting to go to a party or dinner because we are tired or busy, but finally we’re convinced, and when we go we realize it’s the best dinner or party of our lives. That’s how I feel about the French: they need to be convinced or taken by the hand so they realize how positive change is.

White, the color of royalty.

What would have to happen for this change to occur ?

No politician is willing to take up with the idea because they know it would result in a sudden drop in opinion polls for them because people would think that the policy is completely crazy. What I see as my biggest challenge as a researcher is convincing people that this is not as crazy an idea as it seems. I want people to realize that this could be a very realistic proposal. I accept that people might disagree with that proposal, but I object to the assumption that the proposal itself is impossible. Once it appears realistic, I think some politicians would be willing to take it up.

In many ways, the idea isn’t new. The Byzantine and Roman empires were all about the absorption of peoples…

Exactly! It’s not new at all. What is new, what is against the course of history, what is unrealistic and crazy is the closing of the borders.

I bet that in a few hundred years historians will remember this period of closed borders as an oddity. A terrible oddity, and a criminal oddity.

“historians will remember this period of closed borders as an oddity.”

Do you imagine dying a Parisian?

I could imagine it, though I’m not sure that’s how I will die. The cemeteries are beautiful in Paris; it’s definitely a place I’d like to be buried.

Though if I could choose anywhere, it would probably be New Orleans, because I’ve always liked the atmosphere and I think it might be the greatest American city. It’s such a mix between Europe and the US and the people still speak a little French, though it might be barely recognizable to you or I. [Laughs.]

What objects would you be buried with?

A television. [Pauses.] Though maybe reception wouldn’t be great down there… [Laughs.] People are always complaining about the television, but to me it’s one of the best inventions of the last century.

Red, the other color of Paris.

Is Paris dead?

Somehow yes, and somehow no. It’s important to let some aspects die to create new ones.

The French would disagree. It relates to the way they experience change: they feel it as a disaster. The closing of a bookshop is understood as a drama, as though culture is dead. Of course, it’s a little sad, but it means that other forms of culture are emerging somewhere else. Death for one thing can mean life for something else.

Being a Belgian I have a different view. When a king dies and a new king is sworn in, we say “Le roi est mort. Vive le roi.”

It’s important that we are able to say the same for the Paris.

Paris is dead. Long live Paris.

Thierry Schaffhauser wears black socks with white stripes by AMI, and his red umbrella tattoo, symbol of the STRASS,
the sex-workers union.

Museums, monuments, shopping… scratch that. Once upon a time, Paris’ number one attraction used to be its bordellos.

Interviewed & edited by Ed Siddons.
Photography by René Habermacher.
Styling by Suzanne von Aichinger, assisted by Chafik Chariet and Lahcen Fatah.
All looks by AMI.
Retouching by Dimitris Rigas.

Black coton red hearts boxer shorts and black bermuda by AMI.

How times haves changed.  And yet today, as the DSK trial winds down, society’s oldest binaries are being recycled.

Virgin or whore? Pimp or client?  But what about those who are neither? What about those who are both?

Enter Thierry Schaffauser, sex worker, thinker, activist and author.

Not your average Valentine – or, at least, not without a fee – his radical politics, incisive social insight, fearsome intellect and no-fucks-given outlook are enough to wake the dead.

So meet your new “ami,” your guide to the Paris of where the light don’t shine.

But beware, his bark might not be worse than his bite…

Sleeveless denim jacket and black coton red hearts boxer shorts by AMI.

Did you choose Paris or did Paris choose you?

I was born in the suburbs of Paris and you don’t choose where you’re born… I chose to move into Paris when I was 18 or 20 because the suburbs are segregated from the rest of the city. As a fag or queer person, it’s much easier to access LGBT spaces in Paris proper than in the suburbs.

I chose to leave Paris for five years, though. I meet men, fall in love, and move to a new place [Laughs.] But now I’m back.

Do you feel Parisian? Did you feel Parisian in the banlieue?

People from the rest of France would say I’m Parisian because they don’t make the distinction between Paris and the banlieue. But when you live there, the distinction is obvious and you don’t go to Paris all that much—you don’t have the time or the money to go regularly. I went for clubs and the gay scene, but there’s a strong separation and I think it’s on purpose: it’s political. The richer you are, the more central you are, and so the poor are pushed out.

Left: Sleeveless denim jacket by AMI. Right: “Pornocchio” t-shirt limited edition by The Gold Dust Orphans 
theater group, black and white stripe bermuda, black and white plaid shirt, black socks and shoes by AMI.

You left Paris for five years to live in London. Why did you return?

I want to stay because I think Paris is more politically interesting. STRASS (Syndicat du Travail Sexuel, a trade union for sex workers) the movement we have created, is more interesting than anything in London, from the way we construct the movement to the way we fight for our rights. In the UK, I thought it was interesting that there is a general union like the GMB [one of the largest general trade unions in Britain] which allows sex workers to join, but I quickly discovered that they’re very patriarchal structures and they don’t understand the sex industry. They don’t understand our needs and demands at all because it remains very controversial in the labour movement.

In France, on the other hand, most organisations ignore us and don’t consider us a real movement. But our independence allows us to do what we want and force them to acknowledge that we exist. Even when we were part of political structures in the UK, we got sidelined. Independence can be really valuable. They couldn’t shut me out because I was a member—even if they tried to at first—but the British have that way of using technical rules to keep you out anyway, while the French just shout at you.

“the British have that way of using technical rules to keep you out anyway, while the French just shout at you.”

Unions in the UK are riddled with bureaucracy, and it’s exhausting to fight within your own structure; I don’t want to waste time, I want to build something. I spent more time trying to talk to bureaucrats than sex workers, discussing the same old things about how the Labour party doesn’t support us, to which my response was always no, because the Labour party isn’t for workers any more: it’s corrupt. It’s the same in France. The corruption starts in the unions. The workers have lost control over the bodies supposedly fighting on their behalf.

So are the French more political than the British?

The French might be more political about some things, as the stereotype goes, but it depends on the question. You have people striking over pension rights across France, whereas in the UK so few people really fought against the cuts. Yet in terms of racism, the British won’t stand it: make a comment as an MP and you’re forced to resign, in France, you get elected President.

The French often want huge change and revolution, but always the reassurance of a hero figure to save the country. It’s depressing because we just get new patriarchs. The really depressing thing is that the next patriarch might be a woman: our first female President might be a fascist…

“the next patriarch might be a woman”

Black denim sleeveless jacket with red and white t-shirt and black denim bermuda by AMI. Thierry is holding his 
book “Les luttes des putes”.

Paris has been a hotspot for left wing intellectuals and activism throughout the twentieth century. Has this changed?

Up to the 70s and early 80s, intellectuals were linked to social movements, often the communist party or the feminist movement. Almost all of the intellectuals in Paris now sound right wing, talking about demographic transformation, the loss of French identity, or themes like “Paris is Dead.” [Smiles wryly.]

Look at the Manif pour tous [the anti-same sex marriage movement] and their attacks on gender theory. The only response from the Left and even some LGBT movements is to say “No! It doesn’t exist, nobody was talking about gender theory!” They aren’t even able to defend the wealth of knowledge and theory produced in the last 40 years. When Simone de Beauvoir said “On ne naît pas femme : on le devient” [“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”] she started a movement of thinking about gender as a social construction. Yet now people are terrified of defending that.

There are still fights that rage on, but the Left often isn’t where it should be. It was in part due to some mainstream feminists that the veil was banned, and certain feminist movements are strongly against the decriminalisation of sex work soliciting. It’s ridiculous. There’s no self-reflection, no critique, they just repeat the same old dogma that “bodies are not for sale” without a wider understanding of capitalist systems that limit choice, and crucially, our own ability to make choices. They treat us as victims, and in doing so, remove our agency.

“They treat us as victims, and in doing so, remove our agency.”

What makes a Parisian?

Just living in Paris. I don’t like the idea that your identity is fixed. If you come from abroad and live in Paris and you get an ID card, then you’re Parisian. What even is French culture anymore? Geography is enough for me: I don’t need any more than that.

Finish the sentence: “A Parisian is…”

Someone who lives in Paris… [Smiles.]

Left: "Les luttes des putes". Right: Black coton red hearts boxer shorts and black socks with white stripe 
by AMI.

Where is the centre of Paris?

For the tourists, Notre Dame. There’s a huge post saying that you are now in the centre of Paris, and as far as I’m aware, it’s from that point that distance to other cities is measured. So I’d say that’s pretty central. I live in Barbès, though, so maybe that’s my centre. Or if I’m not there, I go east where most of my friends live.

Sex work and activism makes me travel everywhere, all the way from the Bois de Boulogne in the east to the Bois de Vincennes in the west. When I see my clients, I travel all around Paris, even to the suburbs sometimes. For sex work in general, but especially male sex work, almost everything is organised online. When I started, gay sex work centred around Porte Dauphine, but the internet has changed that. I haven’t been there for ages for work, but I go there to talk to guys and understand what their working lives are like.

“Sex work and activism makes me travel everywhere, all the way from the Bois de Boulogne in the east to the Bois de Vincennes in the west.”

Does the Syndicat du Travail Sexuel (STRASS) have a centre?”

STRASS has never owned anywhere, our meetings are hosted by ACT UP [the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a radical queer organisation with chapters worldwide] who provide the room for the weekly meeting. Sometimes we meet at Bastille, sometimes Belleville, which though it’s a little less accessible, is good because of the concentration Chinese sex workers there.

More broadly, there are many places which are symbolically related to the history of sex work, like St. Lazare Prison. In the nineteenth century they put sex workers, and any women they wanted rid of, in there. I went there recently, and there’s nothing that remains, just a small wall. Now there’s a school and they have a street that runs through where the prison court was. You would never imagine there was a prison there.

Our past has been completely erased. Occasionally when things are demolished, people put up a plaque; I wish we could have something like that for the imprisoned prostitutes, but nothing remains—it’s like we never existed.

“Our past has been completely erased.”

The hôpital Salpêtrière is important too. Before the Revolution in 1789, Louis XIV made the place a prison for unwanted women, then after it became a psychiatric hospital for the “hysterical.” Like the St Lazare prison, its history is linked to the repression of women. It’s still a hospital today, and people only vaguely know about its past. People know it used to be a psychiatric hospital, because of Charcot’s studies of hysteria, which Freud later worked on, but the exact history isn’t known.

When was Paris’ Golden Age?

The revolutions: 1789, 1792, 1830, 1848, 1871, 1936 and 1968. The most interesting things in history, to me, are when you can hope for big change, and the revolutions were very short moments when the people thought they might get the change they needed, when people were ready to fight for their rights.

Vintage 70’s Givenchy silk scarf.

Where do you see Paris in five or ten years?

I never think about the future. I often do things on a daily basis for now, so for me or the city, no idea, but there are reasons why it doesn’t change as much as other cities like London. You need permission to build, there are strict limitations on size, and there’s a really strong urge to protect the patrimoine [cultural heritage]. I appreciate that: I often feel moved when I see structures from the Middle Ages in the Marais, for example.

When you’re in London, anyone can build anything and it’s ugly and nobody cares; people walk past and it’s normal. In Paris, people wouldn’t allow an entrepreneur to build something hideous to house his new business—the people would fight. I don’t think it’s as static as people say, and some neighbourhoods change a lot.

That aside, larger scale change is taking place. I have a fear of the far right and their rise across France, and it seems unstoppable. Paris is less concerned for the moment, but it will still have consequences here. In five or ten years, I will probably have to move to another country because of the political context.

“In five or ten years, I will probably have to move to another country because of the political context.”

Do you imagine dying a Parisian?

I don’t even imagine my death. I don’t know where I’m going to die and I don’t care.

What would you wear the Paris’ funeral?

I’m not fascinated by death, I’m more scared by suffering, I think it’s just the end of life, that’s it. If I had to say, then my tracksuit. Always my tracksuit.

What object would you be buried with?

I’d rather give my body to people who need it than be buried.

“I’d rather give my body to people who need it than be buried.”

Is Paris dead?

I know that many Parisians say it is because people like to be blasé, but there are people doing things. Maybe if you work in fashion and you get bored easily it might seem dead, but it isn’t.

Look at Barbès: there are people doing things all day every day to get by, doing things just to survive.

People on the streets are fighting to survive. They are definitely not dead.

Book: Les luttes des putes, by Thierry Schaffauser, La Fabrique éditions.