Jeanne Carstensen

Jeanne Carstensen is a San Francisco-based writer and editor.

Jeanne Carstensen is an independent journalist based in San Francisco. In 2015, she covered the mass arrival of refugees to Lesbos and other eastern Aegean islands and the smuggling operation in Turkey. In 2016, she returned to Greece to report on the 60,000 refugees trapped in the country after the Balkan route closed. She also reported from Germany, France and Hungary where she covered refugee integration. Her work on the refugee crisis is supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and has appeared in Foreign Policy, PRI’s The World, The Nation, The Intercept, GlobalPost and other publications.

​Jeanne was executive managing editor of The Bay Citizen, which produced the Bay Area pages of The New York Times. She has been an editor at Salon, SFGate.com and the Whole Earth Review and a producer at Radio for Peace International, a shortwave station in Costa Rica, where she lived for six years. She was a National Arts Journalism fellow at Columbia University and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Nautilus, Salon, Religion Dispatches, Al Jazeera America and other outlets.

Patrice Quélard in Saint-Nazaire, France. In 2016, Quélard co-founded the Citizen’s Initiative to Help the Refugees of Saint Nazaire. The city has welcomed around 200 refugees as part of the EU’s relocation program.

This small French city wants to be a good home for refugees

Saint-Nazaire is famous for its shipyards. But the small city on the coast of Brittany in western France is also becoming known for something else — the welcome it gives to refugees.

This small French city wants to be a good home for refugees
Members of the Noh family in Ritsona refugee camp in Greece in May 2016.

This Yazidi family escaped genocide in Iraq. Their next challenge is building a life in France.

This Yazidi family escaped genocide in Iraq. Their next challenge is building a life in France.
Christa Schmidt at the table in her apartment in Traunreut where she tutors refugees in German. Schmidt’s parents were German refugees from Romania.

A small German city finds it's not easy welcoming hundreds of Syrian refugees

A small German city finds it's not easy welcoming hundreds of Syrian refugees
Wesam Daas, left, with Carnival revelers in Altenmarkt, Bavaria.

After fleeing Palmyra, this Syrian family is trying to find home in small-town Germany

After fleeing Palmyra, this Syrian family is trying to find home in small-town Germany
An Afghan family walks toward the Hungary-Serbia border on the day the new law takes effect.  They will live in a detention center until a decision is made on their claim.

'How will I live there?' Asylum seekers in Hungary are detained in shipping containers.

'How will I live there?' Asylum seekers in Hungary are detained in shipping containers.
Somali refugees

Three Somali journalists on Lesbos hope for the best — asylum in Europe

Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis make up the majority of the refugee population stuck on Lesbos and other Greek islands. So the Africans there to seek asylum are often overlooked.

Three Somali journalists on Lesbos hope for the best — asylum in Europe
A Syrian refugee in northern Greece

Syrian refugees are now paying smugglers to take them back

The EU’s asylum policies are failing. And conditions in Greece are so bad that many desperate Syrians see no other option but to make the dangerous journey back home.

Syrian refugees are now paying smugglers to take them back
moria refugees fire

Refugees lose the little they have left in Lesbos detention center blaze

The EU-Turkey deal has turned Lesbos into an open-air prison.

Refugees lose the little they have left in Lesbos detention center blaze
Salim Noah plays guitar

For Yazidis in Greece, safety and security are still out of reach

Persecuted by ISIS, chased out of Iraq, the Yazidis have suffered a lot. And that was before they got to Greece, where other refugees, mostly Muslims, are still persecuting them.

For Yazidis in Greece, safety and security are still out of reach
Renna Ramadan prepared an iftar meal for her family, Syrians from Idlib who hoped to reach Northern Europe but instead are living in the passenger waiting area at Piraeus Port Terminal 1 in Athens, Greece. Several hundred refugees and migrants remain at P

Muslim refugees stuck in Greece miss home more than ever during Ramadan

The Greek government is making an effort to support Muslim refugees during Ramadan but for those stuck in limbo in tough conditions the holiday is also a painful reminder of better days.

Muslim refugees stuck in Greece miss home more than ever during Ramadan
Makmoud Nakarch rolls out dough in order to make Syrian flatbread in his bakery under a cargo train parked at Idomeni Camp.

The fortune-telling baker who predicted a camp's end

Makmoud Nakarch, a law student from Aleppo, had created a Syrian flatbread-baking business at a massive refugee camp in northern Greece. He also said he could predict things. He predicted, correctly, that this camp would be emptied.

The fortune-telling baker who predicted a camp's end
Immigrants leaving Idomeni camp earlier this week in an attempt to cross illegally into Macedonia in order to continue their journey toward Western Europe.

Idomeni refugee camp may be emptying, but trauma of crisis is far from over

About 8,500 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere lived in the Idomeni camp in northern Greece. Authorities began clearing it on Tuesday.

Idomeni refugee camp may be emptying, but trauma of crisis is far from over
Moa'yad Al Saur, 20, from Damsacus, Syria, moved into a train parked at Idomeni station. He studied economics in Syria but fled because he didn't want to fight in the Syrian Army. His brother arrived in Germany already and his parents are still in Syria.

Trapped in Greece, these refugees wait, just before another frontier

Chicken scratches on the wall mark the number of days one Syrian has spent in a camp that is home to 10,000 of the 54,000 refugees in Greece.

Trapped in Greece, these refugees wait, just before another frontier
Ali Jaffari and his wife, Wajiha, and son Shayan

For long-suffering refugees, a three-star respite

It's been a long journey, one that skirted death at least once. So Ali Jaffari at first thought it was a scam when a Greek friend offered his family of four a room at a three-star hotel in Athens.

For long-suffering refugees, a three-star respite
Information about filters at a distribution center table

One reason undocumented immigrants didn't learn about Flint's lead poisoning sooner: There wasn't much in Spanish

The nearly 1,000 undocumented residents in Flint, Michigan have been among the last to learn about the dangers of lead in the water. One reason? Language barriers.

One reason undocumented immigrants didn't learn about Flint's lead poisoning sooner: There wasn't much in Spanish