Governing Migrant (Im)mobility in Greece After the EU-Turkey Statement

Abstract

The chapter looks at the governance of migrant mobility in Greece in the period 2015–2018. It investigates how Greece managed migrant trajectories, with particular attention to irregular migrants and asylum seekers who entered through the land and sea borders, after the EU-Turkey Statement of March 2016. Building on empirical research conducted in the framework of the CeasEVAL project, with migrants and asylum seekers who crossed the external borders of Greece, the chapter contributes new findings to the growing field of research on borders and bordering practices and how they impact the (im)mobility trajectories of people on the move. As the findings suggest, the governance of migrants’ mobility sought not only to deter entry or provoke onward movement, but also to produce containment and divergence, both geographical and in terms of access to services. Mobility was regulated and controlled internally through the construction of administrative and legal barriers that in turn resulted in the inclusion/exclusion from key services, including asylum and accommodation. Reception conditions –particularly access to, or lack of accommodation– can define secondary movement, either by provoking or by deterring it. Thus, internal barriers can function as a key driver for the desire to undertake transitory movement, posing a challenge to the Schengen space.