MIGRANTS IN GREECE: ISSUES OF POLICY AND THEORY
The author of the following piece, Dr. Vassilis Karydis, is a lawyer and lecturer in criminology at Democritus University of Thrace. He is currently working on legislation, deviance, social control and preventive policies relating to migration.
For the last six years, following the collapse of the "existing socialism" regimes in Europe, Greece - traditionally an emigration country - received an unprecedented wave of foreign migrants, most of which were undocumented. Today, the migrant population in Greece numbers 500,000 people (of a total population of about 10 million). Half of these migrants come from neighbouring Albania. This means that 5 per cent of the total population and almost 10 per cent of the economically active population in Greece are migrants - an impressive number considering the fact that according to the 1991 census in Britain - traditionally an immigrant receiving country - 5.5 per cent of the population belong to an ethnic minority group. We should point out, however, that in Britain minority group members are UK citizens or legal residents, often "second generation" immigrants (as is the case for other early industrialised countries like France or Germany).
By contrast, a totally unprepared Greece found itself confronted with a sudden and massive wave of immigrants, the big majority of whom were both illegal and of European origin.
Another feature distinguishing the Greek experience is the reality of a long border and coast line, which is also an external frontier of the European Union. Moreover, political considerations in the turbulent Balkan context are strongly influencing state policies in the field of migration.
Migrants in Greece are mainly employed as unskilled workers (usually regardless of their profession at home) on construction sites, in temporary jobs in the farming and fishing sector, and in the tourism business and housework. Their average pay is half the legal minimum pay of a Greek worker or even only one third. The latter is usual for Albanians without social security.
The Schengen dictate
The aliens law (L.1975/1991) materialises the "Fortress Europe" conception of the Schengen Agreement (which has still not been ratified by the Greek parliament) aimed at deterring migrants from entering the common territory of the European Union and to restrict the rights of those already established here. Illegal entry is a criminal offence, just as working without a permit is. Article 4 of the aliens law allows for the immediate administrative deportation by police and border authorities of illegal migrants - even on a massive scale - upon a mere "order of a prosecutor" that can be obtained orally! This provision has been applied in hundreds of thousands of cases without any legal remedy for the migrants concerned. Article 31 of the law precludes illegal immigrants from any public services, except for emergency health care. In this way, children, for example, are not allowed to register at schools. The law also gives extensive powers to the administration to decide on serious matters such as the recognition of refugee status, the rejection of asylum applications on the grounds that they are "manifestly unfounded", the granting of stay and work permits, the list of "undesirable aliens", etc. An illegal immigrant may even find it difficult to leave the country voluntarily since he/she faces heavy fines if stopped when exiting the country.
Thus, the legal framework more or less dictated by non-accountable inter-governmental bodies of the EU actually delimits the first circle of exclusion of migrants in Greece.
"Immigrant" = "illegal" = "criminal"
The second circle of social exclusion has to do with police action and its consequences. Any person wandering around poorly dressed or talking with an accent automatically becomes suspicious as an "illegal immigrant" - a term that in today's Greece is almost tantamount to the stereotype of the "dangerous" or even "criminal element". The particularly intense police control of the immigrant community is very likely to have contributed to a higher rate of registered crimes as compared with other less controlled segments of the population. Needless to say, no information or translation facilities are provided to the immigrants who are handled by the police or the border authorities. Legal representation at police stations during arrest or pending deportation is a rarity. Many allegations have been made of ill-treatment or even torture of migrants at places of detention.
Quick sentences and discretionary detention
The third circle of social exclusion is drawn by the judicial and prison system. Lack of legal representation, language problems, the possibility for the court to suspend the sentence and order immediate deportation, and the prejudice of ordinary judges, lead to quick convictions of migrant defendants. Also, pre-trial detention is regularly imposed on migrants on the grounds that they lack permanent residence and the suspicion that they might flee the country pending the trial.
A quarter of the prison population are aliens, of which half are Albanians.
A recent survey on the human rights of detained foreigners in Greece has shown a lack of communication and of elementary knowledge of their rights. In general, detained migrants are perceived by the authorities as an undesirable burden, responsible to a great extent for the overcrowding and bad conditions in prisons.
People's fear of the "generalised other"
The fourth circle of social exclusion consists of the informal social reaction to the presence of the migrants. People are afraid of the "generalised other" which migrants represent. They avoid letting houses to migrants, let alone socialising with them. Victims are often inclined to report minor offences when the offender is a foreigner and to name migrants as perpetrators of crimes - specially against property - when the offender is not known. It is not unusual for employers to turn migrant workers to the police for deportation in order to avoid payment of wages. "Paradoxically", they do not seem to be afraid of consequences for themselves although it is an offence to hire illegal immigrants.
People are happy with the migrants only when they get the opportunity to exploit their workforce by using them in heavy and underpaid jobs.
I asked my students to choose between the three following meanings of the sentence "I have Albanians at home": a) business meeting; b) social gathering; c) performance of a job. Without exception, all of them chose the third option.
The role of the mass media
Mass media amplify this stereotype of the "dangerous migrant" by exaggerating their criminal activity, focusing on particular crimes, and sometimes distorting the circumstances of the act itself. A passenger on a bus died of a heart attack after he tried to chase migrant pick-pockets who had stolen his wallet. The incident was presented under headlines such as "Albanians attacked and killed a man in front of the public". Any migrant offender is described by his national identity and not by personal characteristics. As a rule, the commission of an offence by a migrant is conspicuously reported as the crime of an "Albanian rapist", "Romanian thief", and so on and so forth.
Migrant criminality a construction of the privileged?
Contemporary criminology and sociology of deviance have pointed out that negative interaction of the kind which I have referred to leads to the internalisation of stigma and the acquirement of criminal identity; that mechanisms of formal and informal social reaction are actually responsible for the marginalisation of lower social strata and the creation of an underclass; that criminality and "street crime" in particular are actually a construction of the privileged who make the rules and enforce them according to their interests; that migrant communities are the ideal ground for such an enterprise because of their economic and social vulnerability.
However, is it possible to merely close the issue and conclude with the acceptance of the above analysis? I feel that this would be too simplistic. Is criminality just a self-fulfilling prophecy - merely the product of discretionary police activity, arbitrary media stereotyping and peoples' unfounded "fear of crime"?
"Crimes of poverty"
To answer such questions, I think it is necessary to bring into the scheme of the interaction between offenders and control agencies the notion of a criminogenic social reality which affects migrants both as offenders and as victims. Migrants do commit crimes, usually "crimes of poverty" or even "crimes of survival". This is illustrated by the following quotation of an illegal immigrant in a recent study: "When somebody has nothing to eat, one never knows what he might do. I realized this when we just had come here and our baby was hungry and crying and we had no milk. I'm not sure what I might have done, if nobody had helped us".
Decades ago, R. Merton described a lawless social reality where legal means for the attainment of the socially acceptable goals are not available to the lower classes, which are suffering from relative deprivation in a materialistic and class-ridden society. However, in the case of illegal migrants in Greece we are talking about people who are illegal "by definition", human beings "in parentheses". They experience a situation of almost absolute deprivation and alienation that reflects directly on their self-esteem, moral standards and respect for other human beings. At the dawn of the 21st century, Manchester's "criminal classes" of the 19th century have, in a way, come to life again in Athens and other European capitals.
Creating a "hot house" for organised crime?
Personally, I find the indices of migrants' recorded criminality surprisingly low, considering their living conditions and the negative interaction with Greek society. Indeed, only in the case of offences against property the crime rate of migrants is about the same as the active population's, i.e. about 10 per cent. In all other categories of offences, official indices of migrant criminality are lower. However, I believe that this impression is misleading too. There are certain indications that hidden criminality is high within the migrant community. Only serious crimes, such as homicide, grave bodily harm or armed robberies seem to be reported and subsequently recorded when the victims are migrants. In many other instances victims refrain from turning to the state authorities for help since this would result in their own arrest and deportation because of their illegal status. In other words, a perfect "hot house" for organised crime has been created. Research findings already point at this direction in the fields of prostitution, child exploitation and drug-trafficking.
Macro-theoretical approach does not suffice
Macro-theory is very useful and necessary, but not always effective in addressing problematic situations which call for quick solutions. In the academic discourse we should never lose sight of the fact that the object of certain theoretical disagreements and political discord are human beings who suffer, who strive for a better life during their own lifetime. Intervention at the micro-level of social realities in a given economy must be pursued according to the particular circumstances. One should take into account the structure of the migrant population in a particular country, their aspirations, their needs, their interaction with state and social agencies, the reality within their own community. Questions of age, gender, subcultures, antagonisms and differences between various ethnic groups - and within each group - must also be considered.
Without being an eclecticist, I submit that the Greek experience regarding migrant population and its interaction with this country's particular social reality calls for a different use and assessment of theoretical frameworks originating from the experience of the post-industrial societies of Northern Europe, and, even more so, North America.
Repressive policy against migrants a failure
The existence of a significant migrant community within Greek society is a reality and already a part of the country's social history. The existence and implementation of a repressive and myopic legal framework not only violates human rights, but actually contributes to the creation of serious social problems, while manifestly failing to achieve the aims publicly set by the rule-makers, i.e. to improve public security. I believe that this policy failure must be made clear to the Greek public if we shall succeed in promoting alternative strategies towards the migrant population. An active movement must be involved in interventions at all levels of social exclusion which I briefly described above. It must press for the necessary changes of the legal framework, confront stereotypes and discrimination and at the same time present specific proposals for addressing the root-causes of migrant criminality and alienation. All this must happen not only at the macro-level but also - and more important -at the micro-level of everyday life and interaction.
Vassilis Karydis
Contact: Dr. Vassilis Karydis, 56 Sina Street, GR-10672 Athens; Tel: +30/1 3612406, Fax: +30/1 3622067.