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Abstract
Focusing on two immigrant populations and their relationships with their native neighbours in Thessaloniki, Greece, this paper highlights that immigrant–native relations are not only cultural relations but also power configurations unfolding through a symbolic contestation over defining the nation and who belongs to it. In everyday interaction, immigrants' behaviour is judged by natives according to the degree of their compliance to the native norms. Immigrant categories are endowed with different resources in resisting the pressure exerted by the native society. Categories that have more resources in symbolic and substantial terms are less eager to comply, thus appearing more ‘different’ in the eyes of the natives.
Acknowledgements
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at IMISCOE C7 cluster workshop in Helsinki, 2008 and the fourth Hellenic Observatory PhD symposium LSE, London, 2009. The paper partly draws on my PhD research which was supported by an IKY postgraduate scholarship. I wish to thank Vaso Papathanasiou and Roman Sevastov for their help in the field, Flip Lindo for his invaluable guidance and feedback in the writing of this paper, Hans Vermeulen for his comments on earlier versions, and the two anonymous referees for their constructive comments. Responsibility for all remaining errors is mine alone.
Notes
[1] The term is neither a term of self-identification nor an ascribed categorical label. It is an etic term whose validity is limited to the analytical treatment in relation to the subject matter of the present research, namely to differentiate people of Greek descent who immigrated from the FSU from the Greeks already living in Greece. The term ‘FSU Greeks' was preferred over the more commonly used term ‘Soviet Greeks' because the latter might be taken to indicate that Greeks from the FSU collectively identify with the FSU, which is not the case.
[3] The largest share of the Greek diaspora in the area that later constituted the Soviet Union developed through successive population flows from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Immigration primarily concerned the Christian Orthodox populations of Eastern Anatolia, notably those of Pontos, a coastal area in the Southeastern Black Sea region.
[4] Even though the uprooting of refugees that followed the Asia Minor Catastrophe is lamented as one of the most tragic moments in contemporary Greek history, their settlement in Greece is acknowledged as a major resource for development of the Greek nation state.
[5] One may compare the Greek with the German case in that respect. The privileged migration of Soviet Germans was meant to accommodate a unique historic event, the expulsions and repressions that ethnic Germans suffered in the aftermath of World War II (Joppke Citation2005). Soviet Germans coming after 2010 are not entitled any of the privileges conferred to their predecessors.
[6] All data presented here are drawn from the analysis in Labrianidis et al. (Citation2008).
[7] A considerable segment of FSU Greeks, especially the older generations, spoke the Pontic Greek dialect in the FSU, but not Modern Greek.
[8] Similarly to the majority of FSU Greek immigrants, a considerable segment of the native Greek population in Nikopoli originates from Pontos. The question of how their common origin influenced their relation is too complex to be answered adequately here (see Pratsinakis Citation2013). For our subject matter, it suffices to note that it did not facilitate their mutual rapprochement.
[9] The data were collected in the context of the GEITONIES project.
[10] A segment of the Albanian immigration to Greece concerned Albanian citizens, mainly from southern Albania, of Greek ethnic origin and the Christian Orthodox religion. The policy reception of ‘Albanian Greeks' by the Greek state was less favourable than that of the FSU Greeks. The state balanced its policy between the proclaimed moral obligation towards co-ethnics and political considerations whereby Greek Albanians are more important for the state in Albania than in Greece (Pratsinakis Citation2008).
[11] The overall picture for the Albanian immigrants in Greece has been one of progress. Yet that should not lead to an idealisation of their conditions. Currently, Greece is entering a new phase in its migration history. While facing an acute economic crisis, young and highly educated Greeks are emigrating, immigration from the Balkans are in steady decline, and asylum seekers and undocumented migration from Asia and Middle East and Africa is reaching significant proportions. Research on the impact of those developments on the trajectories of settled immigrant communities is limited (for an exception, see Michail Citation2013).
[12] Many studies have highlighted the low participation rates of Albanian immigrants in associations (Hatziprokopiou Citation2003; Lyberaki and Maroukis Citation2005; Pratsinakis Citation2005). Moreover, the existing associations generally lack a socio-political character. The lack of coherence of the Albanian community is also reflected in their residential patterns (Kokkali Citation2011).
[13] Here, it is not implied that their stigmatisation is inescapable, but just that their strategies have not yielded much in that respect so far. Their interpesonal relations with natives, together with their upward socio-economic mobility, may possibly play a positive role in the long run. Even more important in reducing their stereotyping might turn out to be the halt of their immigration and the inflow of other undocumented immigrants which are gradually given the role of scapegoats by the dominant society.
[14] Although mainstream media and political parties condemned the pogrom-like attacks, opinions expressed on talk shows and in tabloids such as Espresso, depicted the celebrations of Albanian immigrants holding the Albanian flag as unacceptable, or even as an uprising of a dangerous internal enemy (Eleftherotypia, September 18, Citation2004).
[15] The bouzouki is a Greek popular musical instrument. The word bouzoukia, the plural form of bouzouki, is also used to refer to the entertainment nightclubs where live contemporary Greek music is performed.