Strange encounters

Abstract

Debates about migration tend to force a representation of migrants into two categories: criminal or victim. Both of these categories feed each other and form the basis for discourses that substantiate the need for detention prisons and the incarceration of migrants. Map.crisis-scape.net is an online map of racist attacks with a focus on Athens, Greece. One aim of the map has been to attempt a different type of representation of the issues surrounding migration that does not place the migrant at the centre of attention, but instead focuses on the violent conditions that affect their lives.

Key words:

• mapping
• racist violence
• representation
• victimisation

Notes

1 Cf. The Observer 2013 home page. ‘Golden Dawn: “Greece Belongs to Greeks. Long Live Victory!”’, accessed April 29, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/01/greece-golden-dawn-violence-eu-crisis

2 Cf. Ekathimerini 2012 home page. ‘First Detention Centre Opens Despite Protests’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_29/04/2012_439869 and Infomobile 2012 home page. ‘First Detention Centre Opened in Amigdaleza, Athens a Week before Elections’, April 30, 2012, accessed April 28, 2014, http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2012/04/30/first-detention-centre-opened-in-amigdaleza-athens-a-week-before-the-elections/

3 Cf. The Guardian 2012 home page. ‘Greek Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants Lead to Mass Arrests’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/07/greece-crackdown-illegal-immigrants-arrest and Open Democracy 2013 home page. ‘Xenios Zeus: Hard Times in Greece’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.opendemocracy.net/eva-cossé/xenios-zeus-hard-times-in-greece

4 Cf. The Guardian 2012 home page. ‘Golden Dawn has Infiltrated Greek Police, Claims Officer’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/26/golden-dawn-infiltrated-greek-police-claims and New York Times 2012 home page. ‘Greek Far Right Hangs a Target on Immigrants’, accessed April 28, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/world/europe/as-golden-dawn-rises-in-greece-anti-immigrant-violence-follows.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

5 One of the worst known cases of an attack by an employer is the story of Walid, an Egyptian worker on the island of Salamina: Radio Bubble 2012 home page, accessed April 28, 2012, http://international.radiobubble.gr/2012/11/walid-story.html

6 Cf. New Statesman 2013 home page. ‘Greece's Modern Slavery: Lessons from Manolada’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.newstatesman.com/austerity-and-its-discontents/2013/04/greeces-modern-slavery-lessons-manolada and X-pressed 2013 home page. ‘Boycott the Strawberries of Manolada Greece’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.x-pressed.org/?xpd_article=boycott-the-strawberries-of-manolada-greece and Infomobile 2013 home page. ‘Manolada: Migrant Workers Shot because they Demanded their Salaries’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2013/04/17/manolada-migrant-workers-shot-because-they-demanded-their-salaries/

7 Newsbeast 2014 home page. ‘H Eλληνικη´ Aστυνoμíα στo πλευρó των ανη´λικων της Aμυγδαλε´ζας’, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.newsbeast.gr/greece/arthro/669423/i-elliniki-astunomia-sto-pleuro-ton-anilikon-tis-amugdalezas/

8 Cf. BBC 2013 home page. ‘Greek Police End Riot at Migrant Detention Camp’, accessed April 27, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23653493 and I Can't Relax in Greece 2013 home page, ‘About the Riot in Amygdaleza Immigration Detention Camp’, accessed April 27, 2014, https://icantrelaxingreece.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/about-the-riot-in-amygdaleza-immigrant-detention-camp/

Additional information

Jaya Klara Brekke is part of the crisis-scape. net collective and an independent researcher and designer.