Displacement Stories: An Ethnographic Account of Seven Lives in Transit A thesis presented to the faculty of the Center for International Studies of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Delphine M. De Gryse May 2020 © 2020 Delphine M. De Gryse. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Displacement Stories: An Ethnographic Account of Seven Lives in Transit by DELPHINE M. DE GRYSE has been approved for the Center for International Studies by Matthew Rosen Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Lawrence Wood Director, Communication and Development Studies Lorna Jean Edmonds Vice Provost for Global Affairs 3 ABSTRACT DE GRYSE, DELPHINE M., M.A., May 2020, Communication and Development Studies Displacement Stories: An Ethnographic Account of Seven Lives in Transit Director of Thesis: Matthew Rosen In April 2015, more than one thousand people died while crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe. The large numbers of people losing their lives turned this issue into a highly mediatized topic, which received the label “crisis.” These numbers became the center of a political and media debate in which displaced people were predominantly underrepresented and misrepresented. This thesis is an ethnographic account that attempts to paint a more humanistic picture of the so-called “European refugee crisis.” The work is composed of seven intimate ethnographies that bring into relief the powerful life stories of particular people who are generally left out of official and media reports about contemporary migration from the Global South to the Global North. By focusing on the personal stories of these seven individuals, this thesis sheds light on the social, historical, economic, and political dimensions of the contemporary “European Refugee Crisis” without losing sight of the people most affected by it. This is both possible and necessary because these intimate stories of the particular illustrate the macro histories of violence, colonialism, and capitalism that have resulted in the unprecedented global flows of people in the twenty-first century. 4 DEDICATION For all those whose lives have been lost or disrupted through displacement, and especially for the individuals who shared their story with me. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank all my participants, not just the seven people who are the protagonists of this thesis, but everyone I met in the field and who was willing to collaborate. I am grateful for having met so many people who let me into their lives, opened up and shared their stories. Sharing time, ouzo, cookies, oranges, birthday wishes, kebab, laughs, anger, fear, intimidation, salty sea water or dust in the eyes, has been a very privileged experience. I was also lucky to meet people who helped me out with more practical issues, such as finding the right contacts or visiting places I would not have access to on my own. Secondly, I would like to thank my committee chair Dr. Rosen, who has always believed in me and supported me since day one, when I was a first-year student in his ethnographic methods class and only had a very vague idea about this research. Dr. Rosen has helped me giving this research shape, develop a proposal, get through the IRB protocol and process the large amount of data I came home with. I would also like to thank Dr. Rosen for his patience during our weekly meetings which always took much longer than expected because of my nature to always ask a lot of questions. I would also like to thank my two other committee members, Dr. Whitson and Prof. Plow, for sharing their knowledge about the thesis process and for taking the time to read my thesis and offer feedback. I am also happy to have won the COMREAL grant, organized by Dr. Karen Greiner, which was a very welcome financial aid for conducting my fieldwork. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 “European Refugee Crisis” ......................................................................................... 13 Migration and Materiality ........................................................................................... 18 Intimate Ethnographies of the Particular .................................................................... 23 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 26 Chapter Outline ........................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 1: Ahmed ............................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 2: Jimmy .............................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 3: Murat ............................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 4: Soraya .............................................................................................................. 70 Chapter 5: Riad ................................................................................................................. 82 Chapter 6: Haroon ............................................................................................................. 95 Chapter 7: Pierre ............................................................................................................. 129 Epilogue .......................................................................................................................... 140 References ....................................................................................................................... 146 7 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Ahmed and his passport .................................................................................... 42 Figure 2: One of the shops in the streets around Hatuniye Parkı in Basmane (Izmir, Turkey) .............................................................................................................................. 43 Figure 3: Repairing and selling cellphones and vending SIM cards is a vibrant business in the streets of Basmane (Izmir, Turkey)............................................................................. 44 Figure 4: Jimmy’s Bible and the map with Les Voyages de Paul .................................... 59 Figure 5: Murat’s guitar .................................................................................................... 69 Figure 6: "Moria is so dangerous. We could not walk around alone" .............................. 81 Figure 7: View of the Saint Therapon church ................................................................... 94 Figure 8: Korakas Lighthouse, where Haroon landed on Lesbos ................................... 127 Figure 9: Left from Korakas Lighthouse: the spotting hut where Lighthouse Relief volunteers do the nightshift ............................................................................................. 128 Figure 10: View on the two towers used as a landmark by Pierre's traffickers .............. 139 Figure 11: The Turkish flag on the ferry, leaving Mytilene behind ............................... 141 Figure 12: Plastic bottles sewed into a t-shirt to use it as a floating device ................... 143 8 INTRODUCTION The blackness of the dark created an almost visual silence. Only the Turkish coastline was visible, with its small twinkling lights from the orange color palette and the mountainous landscape that stood out against the horizon. The weather gods had been threatening all day and the blanket of night hadn’t calmed them down. Blasts of wind pushed the waves ashore, splashing against the rocks. People crossing from Turkey to Greece in rough seas is not uncommon. The reason, I later learned, was that traffickers give a discount when the weather is bad. They see it as guaranteed money. With no Turkish Coastguard, Hellenic Coastguard, or Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency) braving the waters to intercept their clients, the trafficked people either make it or drown. I was riding in the back of a pickup truck on the dusty and bumpy road to Eftalou, which runs directly next to the sea, trying to detect anything irregular. The smell of fire, the sound of voices, or flashes of light. The truck stopped suddenly. A man stood in the beam of the headlights. The group had just landed. Their dingy was only a few meters away. They all had a mix of fear and relief in their eyes. When they realized we were there to help, the sense of relief was immense. They had all thought they were going to die. Many were crying and one woman with a green hijab fell to the ground when she burst into tears. Almost everyone was on the phone. Although I didn’t understand their language, I could just tell that they were sharing the news with relatives. I was sure