Back to Basics: Stateless Women and Children in Greece

Abstract

European societies are effectively witnessing a growing refugee crisis in tandem with the ongoing economic crisis in recent years. Within this climate, migration is at risk of being seen more than ever before as an additional ‘burden’ that societies have to ‘carry’ and it is sometimes even questioned why it should be accommodated or respected at all. This paper draws on empirical research from Greece to examine changing European societies, with a particular focus on how the crisis is affecting the most vulnerable members of society, the stateless children and women migrants and refugees.

Notes

1. The exhibition was hosted by UNHCR Ireland as part of the Photo Ireland Festival 2012, at the Department of Justice and Equality, Dublin, Ireland.

2. David Weissbrodt and Clay Collins, ‘The human rights of stateless persons’, Human Rights Quarterly, 28, 2006, p. 245 <http://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/412>.

3. ‘The world’s stateless’, Report, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, December 2014 <http://www.institutesi.org>.

4. Ibid.

5. Most countries in EU do not have a procedure put in place to determine who are the stateless persons. It is very difficult to estimate with any precision the numbers of de facto stateless people, even in countries where data on statelessness is collected on immigration systems. There are complexities of categorization and often there are overlaps between refugees, displaced persons, asylum seekers and stateless people when some people fall under more than one category at a time. For example, while clearly not all stateless people are refugees and not all refugees are stateless, the overlap has meant that some stateless people fall through the cracks (UNHCR, ‘Special Report: The strange hidden world of the stateless’, Refugees, 147(3), 2007.). Statelessness might also be a taboo subject for states because it often refers to discriminatory policies.

6. Seyla Benhabib, ‘Borders, boundaries, and citizenship work(s)’, Political Science and Politics, 38(4), 2005, pp. 673–677.

7. Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, New York, 1968.

8. UNHCR, Special Report, op. cit.

9. Arendt, op. cit., p. 300.

10. High unemployment and problems of social order in urban areas with high concentrations of immigrants have been manipulated by conservative politicians and extreme right-wing groups to gain electoral support among voters while deflecting attention from more pressing problems.

11. Mark Tran, ‘Dozens drown off Greek islands in deadliest January for refugees’, The Guardian–Migration, Friday 22 January 2016 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/22/dozens-dead-as-two-boats-sink-off-greece>.

12. The main countries of origin of migrants seeking international protection in Greece are Syria (about 50% of the total number of arrivals), Afghanistan (30%) and Iraq (10%), IOM, Missing Migrants Project, 2015 <http://missingmigrants.iom.int/>.

13. On the island of Lesvos, for example, there are two reception centres with a total capacity of 2,800 people. The reception infrastructure on other islands—Chios and Samos—is even smaller (about 300 people in each) (UNHCR, News and Stories, Migrants facing shameful conditions in Greece, 7 August 2015).

14. UNHCR, ‘News and Stories’, UNHCR - Press Conference (Geneva, 7 August 2015) Subject: Europe’s refugee crisis: Greece and Calais. Speaker: Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Director for Europe, <http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/news-and-stories/> (accessed June 2015); UNHCR, ‘The sea route to Europe. The Mediterranean passage in the age of refugees’, 2015 < http://www.unhcr.org/5592bd059.pdf>; UNHCR, ‘Number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece soars 750 per cent over 2014’, News and Stories, 2015 <http://www.unhcr.org/55c4d1fc2.html> (accessed August 2015).

15. Migrants and asylum seekers arriving in Greece continue their journey via South-East European countries (Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia) on to Central Europe (Hungary, Austria, Germany and Sweden). There seems to be a trail to seek refugee status in countries where the state structures and overall support for refugees and migrants is attainable, contrary to the conditions in Greece, which is a region affected by the economic crisis. As a consequence, despite the high number of arrivals, asylum requests remain low in Greece. People entering Greece, in a few days or weeks (depending on resources and their networks) go through the Balkan route to other European countries, especially Germany (UNHCR News and stories, press conference, op. cit.).

16. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/22/dozens-dead-as-two-boats-sink-off-greece> (accessed January 2016).

17. Anna Triandafyllidou and Mariangela Veikou, ‘The hierarchy of Greekness: ethnic and national identity considerations in Greek immigration policy’, Ethnicities, 2(2), 2002, pp. 189–208.

18. Jacqueline Bhabha, ‘Arendt’s children: do today’s migrant children have a right to have rights?’, Human Rights Quarterly, 31(2), 2009, pp. 410–451; Jacqueline Bhabha, Children Without a State: A Global Human Rights Challenge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2011; Weissbrodt and Collins, op. cit.

19. Bhabha, ‘Arendt’s children’, op. cit.; Hugh Massey, ‘UNHCR and de facto statelessness’, Legal and Protection Policy Research Series, Division of International Protection, April 2010.

20. Bhabha, Children Without a State, op. cit.

21. Massey, op. cit.; Bhabha, ‘Arendt’s children’, op. cit.

22. Jus soli and jus sanguinis are principles that dictate the criteria used to grant or deny citizenship. Jus soli literally means law of the land and, according to this principle, citizenship is based on place of birth; jus sanguinis dictates that citizenship is based on family heritage or descent.

23. Weissbrodt and Collins, op. cit.

24. Alice Edwards and Laura Van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness Under International Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014.

25. UNHCR, ‘Nationality and statelessness. Handbook for parliamentarians N° 22’, UNHCR –Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2014; UNHCR, ‘Global action plan to end statelessness: 2014–2024’, 2014.

26. Most studies do not address children as discrete agents in the migration or asylum-seeking process, see a useful overview in Forced Migration Review special issue on statelessness, issue 32, April 2009.

27. ‘Migrant groups slam government over Greek citizenship law’, e-kathimerini.com, 27 February 2013.

28. Ilias Trispiotis, ‘Socio-economic rights: legally enforceable or just aspirational?’, Opticon1826, 8, 2010.

29. ‘Immigrants press children’s Greek citizenship’, Greek Reporter, 27 February 2013 <http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/02/27/immigrants-press-childrens-greek-citizenship/#sthash.F94nq597.dpuf> (accessed February 2015).

30. UNHCR, 2015 News and Stories, 2015 <http://www.unhcr.org/55c4d1fc2.html>.

31. ^<http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/news-and-stories/> (accessed June 2015).

32. Ibid.

33. ‘Equal citizens: campaign for the right to citizenship’, 2010, <http://www.ithageneia.org/en>.

34. ‘Greek government divided over migrant law but measure passes’, Reuters, US, Thursday 25 June 2015 <http://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-migrants-idUSKBN0P52CV20150625>. Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; editing by Andrew Roche (accessed 27 June 2014).

35. ^<http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/02/27/immigrants-press-childrens-greek-citizenship/#sthash.F94nq597.dpuf> (accessed 27 February 2014).

36. Arendt, op. cit.

37. Victoria Redclift, Statelessness and Citizenship: Camps and the Creation of Political Space, Vol. 5, Routledge, Florence, KY 2013.

38. Seyla Benhabib, The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents, and Citizens, Vol. 5, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004.

39. Michel Foucault et al., The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979 (ed. M. Senellart), Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2010.

40. Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 1998.

41. Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence, Verso, New York, NY. 2006.

42. Arendt, op. cit., pp. 177–178.

43. Ibid., p. 181.

44. Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005.

45. Benhabib, The Rights of Others, op. cit.

46. Seyla Benhabib, ‘Dialogues on civilizations: migrations and human rights’, March 2010 <http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000021116> (accessed 5 June 2015).

47. Seyla Benhabib et al., Another Cosmopolitanism, Vol. 3, (ed. R. Post), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006; S. Benhabib, ‘From the right to have rights to the critique of humanitarian reason. Against the cynical turn in human rights discourse’, lecture Seyla Benhabib delivered upon receiving the Meister Eckhart prize on 19 May 2014 in Köln, Germany.

48. Seyla Benhabib, ‘Dialogues on civilizations: migrations and human rights’, March 2010 <http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000021116> (accessed 5 June 2015).

49. Benhabib, lecture, op. cit.

50. Agamben, Homo sacer, op. cit.

51. Giorgio Agamben, ‘Means without end. Notes on politics’, in Theory Out of Bounds, Vol. 20, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2000.

52. In 2016 the Greek economy entered an eighth year of recession, relying on international rescue loans. The crisis is not merely some acute moment in the history of Greece but is most likely to be a deep and prolonged period of recession <http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8862583/greek-financial-crisis-explained> (accessed 29 June 2015).

53. Agamben, State of Exception, op. cit.

54. Foucault et al., op. cit.

55. Agamben, State of Exception, op. cit.

56. Here I paraphrase Agamben’s thought to examine the state of exception with regard to the stateless and its effect on granting them (basic) rights.

57. Agamben, State of Exception, op. cit.

58. Ibid.

59. Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France 1975–1976, Picador, New York, 2003.

60. Michel Foucault, ‘Governmentality’, in J. D. Faubion (ed.), Power: Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol. 3, pp. 201–22, The New Press, New York, 2000.

61. Agamben, State of Exception, op. cit.

62. Ibid.

63. Weissbrodt and Collins, op. cit.

64. Agamben, Homo sacer, op. cit.

65. Butler, op. cit.