090110 UE Migrants’ mobility and the making of the urban space in Greece (2018W)

This course examines the relationship between urban space and migrant movement in Greece from the early 20th century until today. It does so by looking at three different phases of migrant movement and displacement and the three different ways in which these movements shaped the urban fabric. In the early 20th century one could see in Athens, Piraeus, Salonika and other provincial towns, slums, shacks and sheds hosting refugees who arrived in Greece as a result of conflict and population exchange. As the years passed, these slums became what are now known as refugee quarters and neighborhoods. More recently at the late 90s and early 2000 port cities such as Patras This phenomenon is of course not limited to Greece. The example of Calais in France is just the most known among many others. saw a rapid transformation of their harbor areas and the neighboring districts as many spontaneous settings and settlements emerged, in light of the blocking of migrant mobility and the de facto staying of thousands of migrants. During the current so called ‘refugee crisis’, many regions in Greece saw an unprecedented proliferation of camps, accommodation centres, and other formal or informal settlements. The course will bring together these phases of displacement and (Im)mobility by focusing on how migrants make and change the way life is lived and space is produced in the cities. The course aims at a) revealing the importance of spontaneous and precarious settlements in the making of the urban, even when their traces in the city space have disappeared and b) showing that this making of the urban is the result of two overlapping processes. The one involves the state, which intervenes in space so as to address the settlement of migrants. The other, involves the self built settlements and the everyday life of the refugees in the quarters, shanty towns, camps etc. that shape and reshape state interventions.