The sedimentary porosity of tourism, ownership, and child refugees

Abstract

This chapter examines the intersection of formal and informal economies during socialism through tourist practices and the visibility of the border to people living in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. By drawing on the importance of class during the socialist period, I describe the lower- and middle-class habit of spending camping holidays in the area of Northern Greece around Paralia, Leptokaria, and Platamona. I contrast this with the current rise of the Macedonian nouveau riches who own seaside property in Greece, mainly in the area of Halkidiki, and thus become “sediments,” as for most of them it was the holidays in Greece that impelled them to make these purchases. By examining the legal changes that allowed non-EU citizens to purchase real estate, and the financial crisis in Greece that prompted many owners to sell their property to avoid the new property tax, I contrast the current neoliberal modalities of the two states with those prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s and the role of tourism in dissolving or intensifying the borders. In addition, I also focus on the child refugees who left Greece during the Greek Civil War as “human sediments” deposited all around the world, whose presence constitutes major political factor in the contemporary Greek–Macedonian.