The rise of a hesitant EU host? Examining the Greek migrant integration policy and its transformation during the crisis

Abstract

Greece lately, as a result of the crisis, has been transformed from a migrant receiving (host) country to a simultaneously migrant sending and receiving one. At the same time, processes of migrant de-integration from the economy and society have been manifesting too. This paper attempts to draw light on Greek migrant integration policy, which through the years has been characterized by a contradiction between policy narratives and concrete actions on the ground. More specifically, this paper brings to the fore a policy change that occurred during the period 2012–2015 and possibly continues up to now. According to this policy shift, special emphasis was put on the acquisition of the European long-term resident status from the part of already settled migrants as a passport to their intra-European mobility. Politically speaking, such developments were heralded as a win–win situation for both migrants, but also, Greece as a host country. Nevertheless, this rise of a hesitant EU host, who turned its integration policy into a managing migration endeavour, might be indicative of broader tendencies and trends within an expanded EU migratory landscape that includes both migration, but lately most importantly, asylum too.

Keywords:

• Migration
• integration
• policy discourse
• intra-European mobility
• migration management

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the contribution of a prior reviewer that through her constructive comments the paper was re-written.

Notes

1. For the concept of discourse, see for instance Foucault (1991), McHowl and Grace (1993), Kendall and Wisham (1999).

2. Following Foucault’s methodology, discourse and reality are not so easy to separate as reality becomes formed by discourse through discursive practices (Foucault 1991). Accordingly, discourses create realities, convey knowledge and reproduce their logic through repetition. Nevertheless, the point that this paper tries to make is totally different. Migrant integration policy in Greece mostly existed on a purely rhetorical or discursive level and did not form or shape policy on the ground. Instead, in most cases, actual policies on the ground were in opposition to circulating migrant integration discourses and narratives.

3. Broadly speaking, civic integration has been seen as a form of repressive liberalism mainly manifested through migrant’s obligation to integrate and prove her/his commitment to the host society by learning the language, history, civic traditions, etc. and adhere to allegedly established values and norms Joppke (2007a, 2007b). From such a perspective, generic civic integration puts emphasis on two different paths: on the one hand on an abstract European liberal political tradition and its normative ethics towards everyday life, while on the other on national specificities either through concrete and tangible manifestations like language learning or abstract imaginative exercises like adherence to common values, norms, etc. In this way, civic integration in Europe is a two-way street that includes both general political sensibilities along with national particularities real or imagined.