astoundingly knowledgeable answer!!

Other than migrants being there, are there real statistics about crime rates there? there's nothing in the linked article about crime or violence.

@JonathanReez good point, I will amend my answer, stand by...

There's also the notorious Calais 'jungle', 300km north of Paris, which will be there a while longer.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why the answer only mentions "migrant camps" as the most dangerous places in Paris whereas such dangerous places existed a long time before the migrants even left their homes. I know there is a correlation between poverty and violence but in this very case I see absolutely no data that confirms/denies that those areas really are the most dangerous. I sure know of Paris zones that were (and still are) dangerous without any "migrant" presence.

@ereOn are there areas with a high level of white crime?

-1 for stereotype (migrants -> crime) without any data to back it up.

Seriously? You'll walk a few miles from Musée d'Orsay (the current name of what used to be the Gare d'Orsay) before you encounter anything even remotely dangerous. Musée d'Orsay is right in the middle of Paris, in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods, and you'll have to go through miles of tunnels and the Saint Michel and Gare d'Austerlitz stations before you get anywhere there would be enough space to set up a camp. Not quite sure what area you were actually thinking of, but that's definitely not near Musée d'Orsay.

@GayotFow Don't take it personally. If you take your contribution seriously, you should find some legitimate sources of crime data. What you have here is propaganda that reflects poorly on your answer, on the site, and on your own inclinations.

@Max "danger" is not always defined by crime. If a given area is a tinderbox of unrest and a riot breaks out, a person undergoes the risk of injury or detention in addition to any other incidental misfortune. The area, by the way is in the 19th which echoes your answer (+1 from me by the way). You can check the news reports from the Telegraph and Huffington Post to see how urban danger can manifest. Anyone who thinks the JCWI is going to send a racist on a mission of mercy (or that the Huffington Post is a right-wing rag) is clearly an idiot, ignore them :)

@pjc50 Calais' jungle is supposed to be dismantled on Monday.

To people who think this answer is prejudiced towards refugees: OP is a professional immigration lawyer. He has been to this very camp and seen the conditions there with his own eyes. He is recounting personal experience, not being prejudiced. And, seriously, do you even know what life in such camps is like? There are thousands of traumatized people fleeing from war packed into a small area with terrible conditions. (Continued...) @RobSkelly

Many of them have been through hell and lost all their belongings. They're traumatized, impoverished and living in awful conditions. Do you really think that's gonna be a safer place than the rest of Paris? Do you have any statistics to refute OP's valuable personal experience? This critique comes off as a rather extreme and non-useful type of political correctness. Perhaps you should take a trip to the camp yourself. Remember to dress in properly touristy clothing and to bring your valuables. Also, I find OP's external sources quite convincing too. @Sumyrda

I'm not sure if extensive and relevant statistics even exist here.

@Fiksdal en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_France: "Racial and ethnic censuses have been banned by the French government since 1978, since the term "race" in France invokes associations with Nazi Germany." so I believe such statistics would be illegal to publish.

@FranckDernoncourt Wow, that's interesting. Maybe statistics regarding refugees would exist though.

A note: my original comment about the sources originally used in the answer has been deleted, and the answer edited with new sources. My follow-up to @GayotFow now has no context, and is a bit confusing.

@Fiksdal most of them are economic immigrants, not refugees, so they're more aggressive and reluctant to follow the law. What's a small robbery after violating the immigration laws of a dozen countries and throwing away your documents?

"head Northeast to the Avenue de Flandre. Proceed up the Avenue a few blocks and turn left on to any side street. There you will find a somewhat post-apocalyptic venue where migrants have created a camp site." -> are you sure? Looking on Google Maps, all the left side streets up to the Corentin Cariou station (so 1,6km, and at least four "blocks" by any definition), though by no means affluent, look like regular city streets with ordinary houses (well, mostly housing projects) and shops. I'd find it hard to believe that even one of them could house a migrant camp, let alone all of them.

Maybe the camps you are thinking of are a bit further north, on the Petite Ceinture or something like that?

@Fiksdal Those external sources and clarification of "dangerous" as "feeling unsafe" were added after my first comment. I might have overreacted to a perceived discrimination, but apparently many people here felt that the original answer implied that the residents of the migrant camps would be a danger to a tourist, so I'm glad that my comment sparked these edits. The answer feels much more balanced now, so I removed my -1.

There are statistics for Germany, but they're about how often a migrant was a suspect, not about convicted. Also, they mix absolute and relative numbers quite a lot, so be careful when interpreting this. Shoplifting and fare dodging account for ~60% of crimes as you'd expect in a very poor group of people and the report concludes that most migrants never commit any crimes.

@Sumyrda Great, thanks for responding :)

@Sumyrda huge courage to come back and write that comment. Props to you for it.

@Fiksdal Still, I don't think this answer contains much evidence of anything. Also, note that police in France is armed as a matter of course, "armed escort" is just cheap drama. The suggestion that you could just join a police patrol (e.g. end of the second paragraph) tells me that there isn't actually any reason to fear this place, just a lot of misery and perhaps some fear/hostility towards outsiders that would obviously make most people feel unsafe. It is prejudiced to jump from what to the other, danger is not something you can gauge just by looking around.

@Relaxed Maybe you're right, but for a travel site I think OP's personal experiences is useful and relevant.