Abstract
Although there is extensive literature on State migration policies and NGO activities, there are few studies on the common struggles between refugees and local activists. This article aims to fill this research gap by focusing on the impact of the transnational No Border camp that took place in Thessaloniki in 2016. The border region of northern Greece, with its capital Thessaloniki, is at the heart of the so-called refugee crisis and it is marked by a large number of solidarity initiatives. After the sealing of the “Balkan corridor”, the Greek State relocated thousands of refugees into isolated and inappropriate camps on the outskirts of Thessaloniki. Numerous local and international initiatives, with the participation of refugees from the camps, self-organized a transnational No Border camp in the city center that challenged State policies. By claiming the right to the city, activists from all over Europe, together with refugees, built direct-democratic assemblies and organized a multitude of direct actions, demonstrations, and squats that marked the city’s social body with spatial disobedience and transnational commoning practices. Here, activism emerges as an important field of research and this article aims to contribute to activists’ literature on migration studies after 2015. The article is based on militant research and inspired by the Lefebvrian right to the city, the autonomy of migration, and common space approaches. The right to the city refers to the rights to freedom, socialization, and habitation, but also to the right to reinvent and change the city. It was recently enhanced by approaches on common spaces and the way these highlight the production of spaces based on solidarity, mutual help, common care, and direct democracy. The main findings of this study point to how the struggle of migrants when crossing physical and social borders inspires local solidarity movements for global networking and opens up new possibilities to reimagine and reinvent transnational common spaces.
Highlights
Political actions and collective projects that took place in Greece before and during the first years of the so-called “economic crisis” are well known and have been thoroughly examined (Arampatzi, 2017; Daskalaki & Kokkinidis, 2017; Karaliotas, 2017; Tsavdaroglou, Petrakos, & Makrygianni, 2017)
Even though there is a plethora of studies and published papers on State migration policies, social charity and NGO actions (Gabiam, 2012; Ihlen, Figenschou, & Larsen, 2015; Rozakou, 2017), as well as on arrival cities (Saunders, 2010; Taubenböck, Kraff, & Wurm, 2018), sanctuary cities (Darling, 2009; Roy, 2019), and the broader issue of refugees and the city (Hatziprokopiou, Frangopoulos, & Montagna, 2016; Sanyal, 2012), there is a lack of studies examining common struggles of locals and refugees and the ways these can re-shape local movements and re-invent new fields of social and political intervention
Focusing here on the refugees’ struggles for the right to the city, we can link the approaches on common spaces and the right to the city with the theory of autonomy of migration (Casas-Cortes, Cobarrubias, & Pickles, 2015; Mezzadra & Neilson, 2013; Nyers, 2015), which highlights the agency of migrants and refugees against the dominant State and hyper-State controlling and policing structures
Summary
Political actions and collective projects that took place in Greece before and during the first years of the so-called “economic crisis” are well known and have been thoroughly examined (Arampatzi, 2017; Daskalaki & Kokkinidis, 2017; Karaliotas, 2017; Tsavdaroglou, Petrakos, & Makrygianni, 2017). Lesvos (Papataxiarchis, 2016; Vradis, Papada, Painter, & Papoutsi, 2019), and Idomeni (Anastasiadou, Marvakis, Mezidou, & Speer, 2018), little attention has been paid to emergent activists’ struggles in Thessaloniki since 2015, during what has come to be known as the “refugee crisis”. During this period there has been a kind of renewed political awareness, inspired and motivated by solidarity with the refugees who were crossing Greece that gave way to new political collectives and numerous refugee solidarity initiatives. Focusing here on the refugees’ struggles for the right to the city, we can link the approaches on common spaces and the right to the city with the theory of autonomy of migration (Casas-Cortes, Cobarrubias, & Pickles, 2015; Mezzadra & Neilson, 2013; Nyers, 2015), which highlights the agency of migrants and refugees against the dominant State and hyper-State controlling and policing structures
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