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The London School of Economics and Political Science Children of Immigrants in Central Athens at the Turn of the 21st Century: A study of inferiorisation, ethnicised conflict, criminalisation, and substance misuse Pericles Papandreou A thesis submitted to the Department of Social Policy of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, June 2009 UMI Number: U615964 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615964 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 end? Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Abstract This study examines the adaptation pathways followed by the children of immigrants who arrived in Greece in the 1990s. Its main objective is to assess these youths1 vulnerability to assimilation into the marginalised and deviant segments of the host-society. It draws primarily from a inner-city school-survey, interviews with secondary-school students of immigrant parentage, and young defendants of foreign nationality who were contacted at the Juvenile Court of Athens. The research examines, first, the extent to which immigrant-origin youths experience segregation along 'ethnic' lines, the gravity of ethnicised conflict in inner- city milieus, and the impact of victimisation by violent racism. Second, it explores young newcomers' involvement in violence, delinquency and drug use. Finally, it considers their treatment by the police, and their processing by the youth justice system. The study finds that the most serious forms of ethnicised violence and aggressive racism were related to an initial phase of contact, which was marked by widespread xenophobia and conflict between indigenous and foreign-born youths. Despite the hostile elements of the reception regime, there is no evidence that any sizeable group of immigrant-origin youths has adopted an 'adversarial outlook' which might resist interaction with broader society. By contrast, among the main determinants of immigrant-origin youths' over-involvement in some forms of property and violent offending - as suggested by data from both police records and self-report surveys - are their fast assimilation into the norms of the majority society, and their close and antagonistic interaction with same-age nationals. However, the research findings also suggest that the overrepresentation of foreign-born youth in official crime statistics is also due to the 'targeted' over-policing of delinquents with specific migrant-ethnic background. Overall, the findings indicate areas of concern but paint a rather different picture from that suggested by negative stereotypes. In practice, the risk that immigrant youths will become assimilated into marginalised segments of the host society is effectively limited by both the relatively small extent of migrants' residential segregation in Athens, and the small size of the criminal underworld. iii Acknowledgements My work was funded by the Greek State Scholarship Foundation whose support is gratefully acknowledged. I also acknowledge my gratitude to Hellenic Ministries of Justice and Education that provided me research access to the Juvenile Court of Athens and a number of secondary schools. Without that support I should have never been able to undertake this study. Moreover, I am especially grateful to professor C.D. Spinellis for providing me with unpublished police statistics the analysis of which was critical for the development of many arguments throughout this thesis. I also wish to thank the scientific coordinator of the 2003 UMHRI school survey, professor A. Kokkevi for granted me access to survey data. Many thanks are due to the scientific coordinator M. Terzidou, T. Fotiou and other researchers of the Greek REITOX Focal Point for their kind assistance with the UMHRI dataset. I owe a particular dept to the then head of Probation Service of the Juvenile Court of Athens I. Tsagarelli, and probation officers D. Papastathi, P. Zagoura, and Y. Prantalo for their cooperation, which facilitated vastly the interviews with the immigrant young offenders. I am indebted to Professor Tim Newbum, Director of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the LSE, who supervised the thesis with persistent interest and tactful support throughout the course of my doctoral studies. During the three or so years in London I have benefited hugely by the intellectual climate of LSE in general, and the research seminars of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology and the department of Social Policy, in particular. This was a learning experience which continues to inspire me. Moreover, I received encouragement and advice from the small community of fellow research students and colleagues at the Social Policy department of LSE. I owe a great deal to Mike Shiner for advice on the construction of survey questionnaires he has generously offered me at the early stages of my project. Most core ideas and arguments in this thesis were first tried out in a number of BSC and ESC meetings and other conferences. Thus, I am grateful to organisers who invited me and to colleagues who offered feedback. In writing this thesis I have incurred too many debts to family members, colleagues, and friends in Athens. A special thank goes to my sister Lena who assumed the role of research assistance at critical stages of my PhD project. I'm also grateful to Sophie Kazakou who watchfully have read almost every draft and gave me careful suggestions. Over these years, I was benefited from discussions on immigration and cognate topics with Lina Ventura. I would like to thank the Therapy Centre for Depended Individuals for afforded me the time off, research access, excellent IT support and library services, that at various points helped enormously my study. Special thanks are due to Soteria Tsiotra whose extensive professional practice with children of immigrants and genuine appreciation of field work details, eventually engaged her in the transcription of some interviews. Above all, I would like to express my gratitude to young people of immigrant ancestry who agreed to take part in the research than made this thesis possible. Table of Contents List o f T a b l e s .................................................................................................................................................................................................vm L ist o f F ig u r e s ................................................................................................................................................................................................vm Chapter 1 .....................................................................................................................................................................1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................1 1.1 M inorities and im m igrants in G r e e c e ............................................................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Im m ig ra nt settlem ent pattern s ......................................................................................................................................................14 1.3 C hildren of im m igrant pa r e n t a g e ................................................................................................................................................. 16 1.4 T heoretical issues and d e b a t e s ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 1.5 T erm inology and national context ............................................................................................................................................. 32 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................................................................. 35 Episteme, Methods, Data ................................................................ 35 2.1 W hose side are w e on ? ..........................................................................................................................................................................35 2.2 M ethods and pr o c e d u r es ....................................................................................................................................................................38