This article addresses solidarity and the opening of social spaces in the relations between refugees and residents of Greece who try to help them. ‘Socialities of solidarity’ materialise alternative ...worldviews; they are loci for the production of lateral relationships; places inhabited by the prospects that derive from the political production of sociality. The article discusses the ‘gift taboo’, dominant in the pre‐crisis era, that reflects the risks of giving to the formation of horizontal relationships. In the contemporary ‘European refugee crisis, and other crises, the gift taboo has collapsed, posing challenges to the egalitarian visions of sociality.
Socialités de solidarité: revisiter le tabou du don en temps de crise
Cet article traite de la solidarité et de l'ouverture des espaces sociaux dans les relations entre les réfugiés et les résidents de la Grèce qui tentent de les aider. Les « socialités de solidarité » matérialise les visions du monde alternatives; ils sont des locus pour la production de relations latérales; des lieux habités par les perspectives qui découlent de la production politique de la socialité. L'article traite du « tabou du don », dominant à l'époque avant la crise qui reflète les risques de donner à la formation de relations horizontales. Dans le scenario contemporain du « réfugié européen » et d'autres crises, le tabou du don est effondré, ce qui pose des défis sur les visions égalitaires de la socialité.
Drawing on my research in refugee settings in Greece, I relate the biopolitics of humanitarianism with the Greek notion of "hospitality" and established cultural schemata of social relations. The ...dominant discourse on hospitality is reproduced in the humanitarian setting of a camp where asylum seekers are produced as worthy guests, placed in the middle ground between mere biological life and full social existence. Volunteers working with refugees on the street, by contrast, attempt to challenge biopolitical power through the reversal of hospitality, through which the refugee is symbolically reconstituted as a host (though a disputable one) and a political subject.
The ‘migration crisis’ has turned migration governance in Greece into a popular research field. At the same time, it has triggered the reconfiguration of sovereign powers with an assemblage of ...disparate actors engaging in addressing the ‘crisis’. This excess of sovereign power has contributed to a migration maze. In this article I use access to the migration field and in particular the Moria camp in Lesbos, as the lens for an exploration of these fragmented and emergent sovereign powers. In particular, I reflect on the materiality of my research permit and the figure of the humanitarian gatekeeper. As I show, any research access attempt encounters different spheres and agents of jurisdiction and responsibility. This fragmentation provides opportunities for research access, but it also poses methodological and epistemological questions. I finally interrogate the question of research access and knowledge production itself. In particular, I argue that the abundance of accounts does not necessarily produce a more thorough and in‐depth picture, but only a limited one, like the access that enables it. As researchers of a blossoming crisis scholarship, we are often complicit in epistemologically reproducing the very border we seek to scrutinise through our critical work.
«Comment t'es entré ?» Accès à la recherche et pouvoir souverain durant la «crise migratoire» en Grèce
La «crise des migrations» a transformé la gouvernance des migrations en Grèce en un domaine de recherche très apprécié. En même temps, cela a provoqué la reconfiguration des pouvoirs souverains avec un ensemble d'acteurs disparates engagés dans la résolution de cette «crise». Cet excès de pouvoir souverain a contribué à créer un labyrinthe de migration. Cet article utilise l'accès au champ de la migration et en particulier au camp de la Moria à Lesbos, comme objectif de l'exploration de ces pouvoirs souverains fragmentés et émergents. En particulier, je réfléchis à la matérialité de mon permis de recherche et à la figure du gardien humanitaire. Comme je le montre, toute tentative d'accès à la recherche rencontre différentes sphères et d'agents de juridiction et de responsabilité. Cette fragmentation offre des possibilités d'accès à la recherche, mais elle pose également des questions méthodologiques et épistémologiques. J'interroge enfin la question de l'accès à la recherche et de la production de connaissances proprement dite. Je soutiens en particulier que l'abondance des comptes ne produit pas nécessairement une image plus complète et plus détaillée, mais seulement une image limitée, tout comme l'accès qui le permet. En tant que chercheurs d'une science de la crise en plein essor, nous sommes souvent complices de la reproduction épistémologique de la frontière même que nous cherchons à scruter à travers notre travail critique.
This article explores nonrecording on the borders of Europe during the “European refugee crisis” in 2015. It examines the ambiguous practices of border control and the diverse actors involved. Taking ...the island of Lesvos as its starting point, the article interrogates how state functionaries manage an “irregular” bureaucracy. Irregular bureaucracy is approached as an essential element of state-craft , rather than an indication of state failure. Nonrecording is thus a crucial site of contestation between the state, nonstate agents, and the government, as well as between Greece and “Europe.” Nevertheless, despite the prevalence of irregularity, the imagery associated with ideal bureaucracy—a system of absolute knowledge, control, and governance of populations—is powerful; and yet, the actors are fully aware that it is a fantasy.
This article explores the ambivalent feelings that police officers demonstrate in their encounters with migrants at migration governance sites in Greece. Police officers are notorious for their ...anti-migrant and racist attitudes, and migration governance sites are infamous for their poor conditions. However, very often police officers exhibit care towards migrants, providing them with medicine, food and other goods. This care is not a matter of individual exceptions in the dominant xenophobic police feelings, but related to the culturally significant sentiment of 'filotimo' (love of honour). This article discusses the cultural conventions that organize this rhetoric in the particular historical moment of the overlapping of the austerity and migration crises in the country. As embodiments of an amoral state, police officers defend their moral self-worth by drawing upon the virtue of 'filotimo'. This rhetoric of 'filotimo', however, also resonates with nativist claims to morality and moral superiority towards migrants.
