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The third decade of Albanian migration to Greece signalled a historical change in the human geography of Greece’s largest migrant group. The impact of the economic recession and the visa-free regime for Albanians entering the European Union shaped a new fluid reality for Albanian irregular migration. This paper explores the impact of the socio-economic transformation processes on the migrants’ legal status vis-à-vis irregular status and integration dynamics. The emerging mobility strategies are conceptualized as a migrants’ agency that overcome socio-economic barriers or policy restrictions and navigate them. This paper goes beyond the legality-irregularity dichotomy, suggesting it is the multidimensional ‘in-between’ space of semi-irregular status where apparently ‘irregular’ Albanians interact with various forms of agency. Our aim is to explore how the irregular/legal nexus developed within the Balkan in the specific context of Greece. The empirical analysis draws on in-depth interviews with 94 Albanians and 13 stakeholders in Greece and Albania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2012, Greece has undergone a significant restructuring of its migration management system, focusing on curbing irregular migratory flows and boosting its asylum services. Migrants of Afghan origin are one of the main groups on the receiving end of these policies. The second highest nationality in irregular arrivals in Greece in the last five years, Afghans were termed ‘transit migrants’ from early on. This paper looks at Afghan migration to Greece and specifically the issue of asylum, both how it is understood and access to it. The study examines how Afghans perceive asylum and their chosen destinations, as well as how they responded to the policies in place in Greece during the period 2012–2014. The paper takes particular note of the policies of systematic detention and how it impacted access to asylum and returns, drawing from qualitative interviews and fieldwork in the framework of the IRMA project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks have been identified as a significant explanatory factor of migration. Apart from their role in prospective migrants’ decision-making with regards to both the decision to migrate and the choice of destination country, networks (co-ethnics as well as employers, recruitment agents, etc.) may assist in overcoming structural constraints as well as facilitate migrants’ settlement. In the case of Georgian migration, networks rooted in the early 1990s and the repatriation of Pontic Greeks play a vital role in Greece’s emergence as one of the main destinations for Georgian migrants. This paper examines the role of social networks in Georgian migration to Greece based on interviews with Georgian migrants in Greece, returned migrants in Georgia, and relevant stakeholders in both countries. The interviews were conducted in 2013–2014 under the auspices of the IRMA research project funded by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on migration from Pakistan to Greece in an attempt to uncover the dynamics of the regulation of irregular migration (and asylum-seeking) in Greece. It examines the factors, policies, and actors that influence the plans, actions, and decisions Pakistanis make before leaving their country and when arriving in Greece. After setting the background against which Pakistanis enter and settle in the country, we trace these migrants’ decision-making process throughout their movement based on a series of qualitative interviews. While a variety of actors and factors are at play in the way people move from the one country to the other, masculinity emerges as the framework within which these come together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous instances of migrant ill-treatment, including torture, in Greek law enforcement have been recorded over a long period of time by international human rights monitoring organisations. The frequent reporting of such incidents though was not accompanied by any major judgments by the Strasbourg Court until Alsayed Allaham and Zontul in 2007 and 2012 respectively. The article provides an analysis of these first major judgments which usefully shed light on the underlying, long-standing systemic failures of the Greek law, as well as of the law enforcement and judicial authorities' practice. It is argued that the above judgments are in fact only the tip of the iceberg. For this, the author looks into the process of supervision of these judgments' execution by Greece, which is pending before the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, as well as into alarming reports issued notably by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the Greek Ombudsman. The article also highlights the question of racial violence that has not been tackled in the aforementioned judgments. However, the national Racist Violence Recording Network and the Greek Ombudsman have recorded numerous cases of racist violence by law enforcement officials targeting migrants and the ineffective response by the administrative and judicial authorities. The article concludes with certain recommendations in order to enhance Greek law and practice and eradicate impunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probing into the dynamics of expulsion and readmission in Greece, this article traces the growing importance of the processes in the shifting geography of irregular migration in the country. It presents and interprets the relevant data that amply indicate the increasing irregular migrant inflows from Asian and African countries of origin, accompanied by the waning of the respective from Albania, a former predominant migrant country of origin. This article lays particular emphasis on the mounting significance of Turkey as gate of irregular entry. In this respect, the implementation of expulsion and readmission has been addressed as pertinent not exclusively to migration control, but also to foreign policy contingencies and the political will of the actors involved in the process. Feedback has been provided as to the prospects of a viable readmission, configured in the interaction and co-operation among the main actors, Greece, Turkey and the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy and Greece have been often blamed by their fellow EU Member States for the excessive permeability of their borders, their inability to stop irregular migration, and their inefficient asylum systems. In addition the two countries have weak internal controls, especially as regards the sectors of the labour market where immigrants are usually employed e.g. agriculture, domestic work, tourism and catering. This article seeks to make sense of these fundamentally contradictory policies that characterise Greece's and Italy's approach to managing migration. The article starts by outlining the common features of Italian and Greek immigration policies and proposes an analysis of immigration control regimes along two dimensions: their internal (within the country's territory) or external (at the border or outside the border) character, and their fencing (stopping) vs. gate-keeping (preventing) nature. Section 3 discusses critically the irregular migration inflows in Greece, the policies implemented to address them and their contradictory results. Section 4 reviews the related policies in Italy and casts light to their inconsistencies. In the concluding section, we highlight the possible explanations for these two countries' lack of direction in immigration management pointing to the opposition between excessively regulated labour markets, large informal economies and strict border controls which however become lax and ineffective once irregular migrants or asylum seekers are within the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the development of Greek immigration policy during the last two decades with a view to explaining the role that parties, trade unions and other actors including the Church for instance have played in shaping this policy. The article outlines the reactive and piecemeal character of the policy, its important weakness in dealing effectively with immigration flows and the excessive red tape that characterises it. It is noted that nearly 20 years after the first migrants arrived in the country, Greek immigration policy remains short-sighted, dealing with immigration as a necessary evil and not as an opportunity. This lack of vision and the closed character of the policy has been supported directly or indirectly by both parties and trade unions. The two major parties have been until recently largely agreed in their exclusionary views towards immigrants. It is only since 2004 that the Socialist party has changed its plans but it remains uncertain whether and how it would implement its radical (by Greek standards) pro-immigrant policies if it came to power. Overall, Greek political elites lack the political will to adopt a proactive and realistic migration policy plan. This is partly because migration neither wins nor loses national elections. And partly because they fear that stating publicly that Greece should accept economic immigrants through legal channels and that immigrants should become part of Greek society on a basis of equality and plurality would cost them votes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on ex Article 19 of the Greek Nationality Code (GNC) which may provide an analysis of the position of ethnic minorities in Greek nationality law and practice. Definition of nationality in international law; Background of ethnic and religious minorities in Greece; Features of Greek nationality law; Anti-ethnic-minority oriented application of ex Article 19 GNC and its consequences; Conflict between the GNC and contemporary international and European human rights law.