For the past seven years Fabien Henissart, 40, has switched countries twice a day, crossing the sea and resetting his watch, back and forth. “You get used to it, you know,” says this resident of Boulogne in northern France.
Every morning he drives his car to the Eurotunnel shuttle terminal, picking up several workmates on the way. After a 35-minute journey they emerge in southern England and carry on to Ashford, the first large town after the tunnel exit.
Ashford is home to SBE-UK, an after-sales services company specialising in electronics, where they work. “Door-to-door, it takes an hour and a half, no more than if I worked in the Paris area,” Henissart explains, reports The Guardian.
He gains an hour on the outward journey, but loses it again on the way back, so he is rarely home before 8pm. But he would not change for anything. “The atmosphere in the UK is much more cosmopolitan and cheerful than in France,” he adds. “Above all there are more jobs.”
According to official figures published by the French ministry of labour, the number of unemployed rose by 0.8% in July, reaching 3.42 million, with unemployment affecting 10.2% of the active population, compared with 7.5% before the financial crisis. Across the channel, unemployment fell to 6.6% in June.
The contrast between the Nord-Pas de Calais region and Kent is more striking, despite only being separated by about 30km of sea. South of the water, unemployment stands at 13%, rising to 17% in Calais and Lens. In Ashford it barely exceeds 5%. In the first quarter of 2014 the growth rate was higher in Kent (3.3%) than the national average (3.2%), whereas in France it was below 0.5% for the same period.
With no reliable figures it is hard to say how many people from northern France commute through the channel tunnel to take advantage of Ashford’s booming economy. “Fewer than people say and certainly less than the economic gap between the two areas might suggest,” says Jo James, head of Kent Invicta chamber of commerce. For one thing travel is expensive: a one-way trip on the shuttle costs at least $38 and the ferry is at least as much.
But above all, although Eurostar operates a regular train service through the tunnel, not many trains stop at both Calais-Fréthun and Ashford International. “So many people from Pas de Calais could work there if only there were daily shuttles,” says Thaddée Segard, head of Opale Link, an organisation that campaigns for closer ties between Kent and the Opale coastline.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.