“Trapped” in a new future: Case of Athens, Greece Social and spatial segregation of municipality of Athens and possible solutions Aliona Cerednicenco Urban studies Masters (Two-Years) 30 credits Supervisor Defne Kadioglu Spring Semester 2020 Abstract The mass displacement of people is a global phenomenon, inherent in human nature and the need for survival. Over the last 30 years, Greece became a destination country for different populations. Although the last wave of displacement people, starting from 2015, found Greece in an unstable economic situation due to the economic crisis. Since 2015, Greece has been facing the two types of crises: economic and refugee. The refugee crisis found Greece, like many other EU countries, unprepared for the number of people that they received. From that perspective Greece refugee crisis can be viewed as a crisis of legitimacy and strategies. During the last five years, Greece made significant steps in the regulation of the refugee situation, especially after the EU-Turkey agreement in March 2016, when Greece officially became a country of destination from a transit country. However, the laws and ministerial decisions instead of decreasing the residential segregation led to an increase of social segregation. This paradox can be observed in the case of the Athenian municipality. This paradox defined the starting point of this thesis and aimed for the investigation of spatial and social segregation in the center of Athens. To study this theme qualitative data were collected for analysis, including, semi-structured interviews, analysis of official documents and observation. The funding of this thesis illustrates that Greece never lost its status as a transit country. And that the biggest challenge that Athenian municipality is facing is the integration of refugees in the Greek society. The undeveloped integration section shows significant distancing between Greeks and refugees. Keywords: spatial segregation, social segregation, municipality of Athens, Victoria square, ​ integration 1 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor Defne Kadioglu, for her guidance, support and understanding during the writing process of this thesis. I would also like to thank people that took part in the interview process, for their time and inputs that they provide for this thesis. In addition, I would like to thank a person that reviewed this thesis and provided valuable insight and feedback. Most importantly, a huge thanks to my support system, my family and friends. Especially, thank you to my mother, that is always there for me. 2 Table of content Abstract 1 Acknowledgments 2 List of Figures and Maps 4 List of Abbreviations 5 1 Introduction 6 1.1 Research Objectives and Questions and Thesis Outline 7 2 Background 9 2.1 Historical approach 9 2.2 The center of Athens 12 3 Theoretical Framework 16 3.1 Spatial segregation 17 3.2 Social segregation 18 3.3 Public space 20 3.3 Summary of theoretical framework 22 4 Research Methodology 23 4.1 Semi-depth interviews 24 4.2 Case study 25 4.2.1 Official documents 26 4.2.2 Observation 26 4.2.3 Interviews 27 4.3 Limitations 28 4.4 Ethical issues 29 5 Analysis and Discussion 29 5.1 Administrative support or continuous adaptation to changes 29 5.4 Case study 36 5.4.1 Square quality 36 5.4.2 Observations and Interviews 38 5.5 Summary of the chapter 39 6 Conclusion 40 References 42 Appendix 1 48 3 List of Figures and Maps Figure 1 “Timeline of three refugee waves” 10 ​ Figure 2 “Schema of Attractiveness of public spaces” 23 ​ Figure 3 “Main stakeholders and five stages to structure the understanding ​ of segregation” 25 Figure 4 “Questions for short interviews 29 ​ Map 1 “The Athens Municipality and its seven districts” 15 ​ Map 2 “Percentage of ESTIA apartments per district in municipality of Athens ​ for the 2016” 16 4 List of Abbreviations AFM Tax roll number COVID-19 Coronavirus disease EU European Union ESTIA Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation GSI Global Segregation Index HELIOS Hellenic Integration Support for Beneficiaries of International Protection MENA Middle East and North Africa NGO Non-Governmental Organization UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 5 1 Introduction The mass displacement of people is a global phenomenon, inherent in human nature and the need for survival. The motivations to migration are a combination of different factors, such as poverty, unemployment, war environmental conditions, political uncertainty, diseases etc. Since the 1990s when Greece became a destination for the immigrant population, additionally Greece has been one of the top destinations for over 30 years. His long journey of displacement populations affected the social geography of Greece, and especially Athens. Therefore, the main objective of ​ this thesis is to explore how the concentration of refugees in the municipality of Athens affects the housing situation, social interaction as well as the usage of common space. Thereby, this study investigates the complicated housing solution for refugees and the paucity of the government response mechanisms. After almost 25 years later, a new face of human mobility has emerged in its massive form. It is the largest refugee and migration movement to Europe since WWII. Thousands of refugees, due to the deteriorating situation in the MENA region, as well as immigrants, have crossed borders to EU member countries. The sociopolitical developments and the blockade of the Balkan route have “trapped” part of the refugee population in the Greek territory. This “trapped” side of the situation can be viewed for both parties, the refugee one side and the Greek another side, as the Greek state experiences the need of the effective management of the incoming population and balancing social inclusion and maintaining social cohesion, during the times of economic crisis. When considering the refugee crisis in Greece, the reality is that the country is facing the second crisis after the economic crisis, and it is becoming relevant to argue about segregation, physical and social segregation. Particularly in the city of Athens, known for its population mobility during the 1970s (Maloutas and Arapoglou, 2011), rejuvenation of the city center in 1990s characterized by social polarization (Maloutas, 2007).(reference). As the massive influx of migrants became an issue for the EU and Greece in 2015, the population's mobility reached its peak in the period so-called long summer (spring-summer 2015 through 19 March 2016 (EU-Turkey agreement) (Oikonomakis, 2018). Greece before the agreement was a country with transit status, after March 2016 this changed and Greece turned 6 into the country of destination for all people that arrived after the sign of the agreement (Oikonomakis, 2018). This new status of migrants, highlights that the previous treatment of them as people in emergency had critical disadvantages. The emergency housing situation pushed the social perspective on the last position in the case of the refugee crisis. This negligence of social aspects throughout five past years reflects the difficulties of legitimacy of refugees and asylum seekers, the accommodation and the social integration of them in Greek society. As the permits to enter Greece has significantly decreased, and increased the applications for asylum for the people that were “trapped” in the mainland in Greece (Hellenic statistics, 2020). In this new phase that Greece and refugees three steps are important to be considered through this thesis the space and its limitation, the time, in addition to integration. Previous studies described the relationship between two stakeholders, such as the state and NGOs, while this study attempts to bridge three stakeholders, which are state, NGOs and refugees (Maloutas, 2007; Arapoglou and Maloutas, 2011). Moreover, this study will illustrate the relationship to the segregation in the city of Athens and the usage of the public space, such as Victoria Square. 1.1 Research Objectives and Questions and Thesis Outline This research focuses on the emerging configurations of socio spatial relationships and effects on the urban central area of Athens, in times of major socio-economic crisis of the country. This perspective remains under-research since the 1990s with the development of different theories and concepts and continued interest in investigation. One of the main concerns within the refugee research is the housing situation of refugees. An adequate housing for refugees can be seen as one of the leading ways of integration in established society and sufficient usage of common spaces. The aim of this thesis is to explore and describe the role of socio spatial relationships in segregated areas within the center of Athens and develop a clear understanding of the housing refugee situation which will contribute in the process of suggestion of possible solutions. In order to address the research aim, the following interlinked objectives are formulated to guide the in-depth exploration of socio spatial segregation aspects: - to illustrate the current housing situation of refugees in Athens 7 - to compare the new asylum seeking law with the previous one and emphasizes a spatial strategy, if that exist - to describe how refugees affected the social and spatial map of center of Athens Therefore, the main research question of this thesis is: How does the refugee “crisis” affect the social geography of the urban center of Athens, Greece? There are two sub questions to develop the topic and investigate one of its aspects in depth, such as a usage of common space. 1. What is the current housing situation of refugees in Athens? Is that housing allocation of refugees leading to spatial segregation, in an already a lot segregated area of the center of Athens? 2. How are the public places (such as squares etc.) being used by refugees and locals? The remainder of this thesis is structured as follows. The second chapter describes the background aspects that are associated with the main topic of spatial and social segregation.