The north-eastern Aegean island of Chios became renown as a transit zone and a welcoming place for thousands of asylum seekers, who were passing through the island on their way to Northern Europe, in the summer of 2015. However, their movement was put into a halt after the EU-Turkey Statement of March 2016, which led to thousands of asylum seekers getting trapped in the Greek islands. A number of contentious events followed in Chios, including a port occupation by asylum seekers, a massive demonstration organized by locals, and violent xenophobic attacks against the asylum seekers. Therefore, this paper examines the hypothesis that the EU-Turkey Statement led to the rise of xenophobia in Chios. It also documents and analyses some of the key events that followed, taking into consideration the concepts of border regime and border externalization, based on a mixed qualitative approach including data from the local press, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and participatory observation.
Alzgool, M. (2019). Nexus between green HRM and green management towards fostering green values. Management Science Letters, 9(12), 2073-2082.
Amnesty International. (2017). EU: Human rights cost of refugee deal with Turkey too high to be replicated elsewhere. Available at www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/02/eu-human-rights-cost-of-refugee-deal-with-turkey-too-high-to-be-replicated-elsewhere/
Asylum Information Database. (2016). Wrong counts and closing doors: The reception of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. Available at
http://www.asylumineurope.org/sites/default/files/ shadow-
reports/aida_wrong_counts_and_closing_doors.pdf
Asylum Information Database. (2017). Country Report: Greece, 2016 Update. Available at https://www.asylumineurope.org/sites/default/files/report-download/aida_gr_2016update.pdf
De Genova, N., Mezzadra, S., & Pickles, J. (ed.) (2015), New keywords: Migration and borders. Cultural Studies, 29(1), 55-87.
Welle, D. (2017). Greece's hotel owners want tourists not refugees. Available at https://www.dw.com/en/greeces-hotel-owners-want-tourists-not-refugees/a-39176253
ECOI. (2016). Report of the fact¬ finding mission by Ambassador Tomáš Bo?ek Special Representative of the Secretary General on migration and refugees to Greece and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Available at
https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/1060038/1226_1463648981_result-details.pdf
European Council. (2016). EU-Turkey Statement. Press release available at
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18/eu-turkey-statement/
European Council on Refugees and Exiles. (2016). The implementation of the hotspots in Italy and Greece - A study. Available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/584ad1734.html
Hellenic Police. (2017). ?????????? ???????? ???????????????? ??? ?? 2016. Available at: http://www.astynomia.gr/index.php?option=ozo_content&lang=&perform=view&id=64341&Itemid=1149
Human Rights Watch. (2018). Why Greece Should #OpenTheIslands. Available at https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/19/why-greece-should-opentheislands
Independent. (2016). Far-right mob attacks refugee camp with Molotov cocktails and rocks on Greek island of Chios. Available at
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-risis-latest-greek-islands-chios-camp-attack-far-right-firebombed-molotov-cocktails-rocks-a7425386.html
IRIN. (2015). Greek financial showdown overshadows refugee crisis. Available at http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2015/06/30l
Kasparek, B., Kirchhoff, M., Neuhauser, J., & Schwiertz, H. (2017). The return of the national? Migration, borders and nationalism. Movements, 3(2), 147-161.
Khalid, N., Islam, D. M. Z., & Ahmed, M. R. M. (2019). Sentrepreneurial Training and Organizational Performance: Implications for Future. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(2), 590-593.
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso.
Mezzadra S., & Neilson, B. (2013). Border as method, or, the multiplication of labor. Durham: Duke University Press.
Papageorgiou, I. (2017). International protection in Greece: Background information for the LIBE Committee delegation to Greece 22-25 May 2017. Report of the Policy Department for Citizen's Rights and Constitutional Affairs for European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, available at
https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/1401618/ 1226_1497249698_ipol-stu-2017-583145-en.pdf
Papataxiarchis, E. (2016). A big reversal: The ‘european refugee crisis’ and the new patriotism of ‘solidarity’. Synchrona Themata, 132-133, 7-28.
Dijk, V. T. (1992). Discourse and the Denial of Racism. Discourse & Society, 3, 87-118.
Umrani, W., Ahmed, U., & Memon, P. (2015). Examining the absorptive capacity construct: A validation study in the Pakistani banking context. Management Science Letters, 5(12), 1053-1058.
Zin, M. L. M., & Ibrahim, H. (2020). The Influence of Entrepreneurial Supports on Business Performance among Rural Entrepreneurs. Annals of Contemporary Developments in Management & HR (ACDMHR), 2(1), 31-41.
In-Text Citation: (Souzas, Diakoumakos, Mermigka & Pechtelidis, 2020)
To Cite this Article: Souzas, N., Diakoumakos, G., Mermigka I., & Pechtelidis Y. (2020). Local Tensions under the “Refugee Crisis”: The Rise of Xenophobia in Chios after the EU-Turkey Statement of 2016. Multilingual Academic Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 8(1), 28–37.
Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
