From 'Cautious Solidarity' to 'Ethnocentric Cautiousness': A Tentative Explanation of the Rise of Anti-Migrant Stances in the Greek Island of Chios

Abstract

This paper examines the reinforcement of the anti-migrant agenda, stances and mobilization in the island of Chios. Chios is one of the five Greek islands of the Eastern Aegean that have served as the points of entry and first reception for almost 1 million refugees. About 120,000 refugees, more than twice as the local population, arrived in Chios from the Turkish coast during 2015; since March 2016 and the signing of the EU-Turkey Statement, which assigns a significant role to the Eastern Aegean islands with regards to control and deterrence of migration and refugee inflows, 2,000–3,000 asylum seekers remain at camps in Chios. Like in the other islands of the Eastern Aegean, the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement has been the catalyst for the transformation of the dominant stance of the local population in Chios vis-a-vis refugees and migrants: from “cautious solidarity” to “ethnocentric cautiousness”. Chios stands out from the other islands of the Eastern Aegean as a mass organization (the “Pan-Chian Committee for Struggle”) that opposes the operation of refugee camps emerged in 2016. The “Committee” has strategically distanced itself from far-right parties and has successfully organized mass rallies and other events. The first part of the paper discusses four components of collective identity that need to be taken into consideration in order to understand the rise and the content of anti-migrant stances in Chios (but also in the other islands). The four collective identity components cover the national (dominant stances and perceptions in Greece), the regional (insularity, “frontiermanship”) and the local level (political tradition and class structure in Chios). In the second part, based on a selected set of 200 articles from the local press (between April 2016 and June 2017), the paper highlights the reinforcement of the anti-migrant stances in Chios. The first section seeks a) to identify main themes of the local public sphere through exploring the coverage of the refugee issue by local media, and b) to highlight the stance of local authorities, political groups and civil society organizations. It is suggested that these two elements examined in the first section constitute the local ‘political opportunity structure’ (POS) with regards to the refugee issue. The second section examines instances of collective action which have an ‘anti-migrant’ character. This includes not only openly xenophobic mobilization, but also – or, mostly – collective claims-making that protest an aspect of the refugee presence in Chios. Particular emphasis is put on the “Committee”, the activities of which are separately examined. The third part discusses main findings and proposes an explanation for the emergence of ‘anti-migrant’ mobilization, by employing particular ‘social mechanisms’ from the Contentious Politics literature (especially those proposed by the authors of the book Dynamics of Contention).