//Should the un-thinkable happen,...//
An extremely hypothetical scenario because if the "unthinkable" happened in the UK it is highly likely that if would affect France as well. But let's pretend it might not.
It's strange that the first thing that springs to some minds when something "unthinkable" is discussed is that residents should up sticks and clear off somewhere else. The unthinkable very much became thinkable in 1939, but I don't recall hearing of too many people leaving these shores "to start a new life" elsewhere. Many left these shores and lost their lives, but that's somewhat different. The men were enlisted into the armed forces - as indeed were some of the women though not in front line roles. The remaining women took over many of the jobs done by men and also ran their homes with severe rationing and the added thrill of nightly bombing. In short, they stayed here to sort out the problems the country faced and I am eternally grateful to them all (and so should everybody else be).
The asylum system encourages just the opposite. It encourages vast swathes of the population to leave, denuding the countries of those people (principally young men) whom the losing nations could do with to sort out their problems.
But that aside, we return to the same argument: people living in France are not facing anything unthinkable. They are living in a safe country but more than that, courtesy of the EU's ridiculous Schengen Agreement, they have passed through a number of other safe havens on their way their where they could easily have applied for asylum. Countries where they were safe and could also present themselves as refugees if they wished. But the fact is they are not solely interested in safety (which is the function of asylum); they are more interested in reaching the destination of their choice (which is not the function of asylum).
Meantime, any progress on whether my argument makes me a bigot and a racist?