Paper short abstract:

This paper illuminates how Greek goths imagine a displaced future in Germany that is created by their everyday life experiences as well as their hopes which are born under the prism of fiscal crises.

Paper long abstract:

Ethnographies of Greek fiscal crises discuss how individuals challenge linearity of time. Many Greeks experience, re-experience or even imagine to experience a complex assemblage of past, present and future events as well as hope and despair. In contrast to that, Greek goths retain a relatively linear but displaced perception of time. Amid the complaints, despair, and suicides in their surrounding, they imagine Germany as a place of Hope where future is possible. A future that most of the times is never realised.

Germany is currently the contemporary 'Mecca' of the European and global goth scene. A considerable amount of goths visit Germany as a secular pilgrimage to a major festival as well as indulging in a night out in the famous goth clubs. Pictures and videos from these festivals are circulated across cyberspace thus creating a fantasy surrounding these places and what goth identity is all about.

More importantly, Greek goths hold a peripheral position in Greece that creates difficulties in their everyday lives. In addition to that, they also perceive Germany as a goth-friendly country where goths are not peripheralised. Those images also make Greek goths consider Germany the utopic place to migrate, mainly because they feel that it will be easier to adapt with the help of the local goth scene but also because of Germany's high living standards and salaries. However, since the migration rarely takes place, Greek goths use their Hope for a displaced better future, to endure living a present 'without a future'.