Camps as buffer zones and the short road from ‘unconditional hospitality’ to ‘hostility’: A report from the Greek island of Chios
Abstract
My aim is to examine the temporal aspects of transformations of ‘hospitality’ towards refugees in the island of Chios starting from the summer of 2015, the peak of the ‘refugee crisis’. Drawing from fieldwork among locals and refugees, members of NGOs and from relevant representations in local journals my attempt is to problematize the temporality and the conditions of the reactions of locals and their attitudes towards refugees/migrants. In this respect, I challenge romanticized approaches emphasizing either an essentialized positive notion of ‘Greek hospitality’ or an equally stereotypical understanding of Greek hostility towards refugees.