Paper short abstract:

My paper seeks to explore the national and local responses to irregular migrants and asylum seekers in Greece based on ethnographic fieldwork on the island of Lesbos, investigating practices with regard to undocumented persons who manage to cross the maritime border between Europe and Asia Minor.

Paper long abstract:

Being one of the new host countries of undocumented migrants in the European South, Greece has experienced a growing number of asylum applications in the last decade. My paper seeks to explore the national and local responses to irregular migrants and asylum seekers in Greece. It looks at the national practices concerning political refugees and asylum seekers (according to the Geneva Convention) as well as the local responses to newly arriving undocumented migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos (situated on the Greek-Turkish border). Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the island of Lesbos, the paper seeks to investigate the local reception structure and local discourses and practices in regard to undocumented persons who managed to cross the maritime border between Europe and Asia Minor. (Fieldstudy based on a research project of the Academy of Athens, Greece.)