Keep calm and muddle through it: three reasons why a Grexit will not happen

“Greek talks must yield immanent agreement,” “Greek exit from euro appears increasingly likely,” “last opportunity” – I can’t take it anymore. For months my Facebook page has been spammed with doomsday scenarios. Every meeting is interpreted as a sign of the coming Grecopalypse. Every statement by a European politician is seen as revelation. Every day is the final chance for the Greek government to avert disaster. Enough. It is clear that this is nothing but a desperate attempt to keep an audience fixed on a topic that is starting to bore them. Of course I am no prophet either, but here are three reasons why Greece will most certainly not leave the eurozone.

Firstly, the Greek government continues to successfully place its government bonds on the global bond market. Only yesterday Greece sold government bonds at a reasonable interest rate of 2.5%. If Greece were going bankrupt, it certainly isn’t showing on the international bond markets.

Secondly, the eurozone governments are aware of the consequences of a Grexit. It may be true that the exposure of eurozone banks has decreased dramatically over the last four years (French exposure to Greek debt is approaching zero); nevertheless, if one country drops out of the eurozone, financial speculation will surely target the next. Remember that the reason for the explosion of Greek debt level has been a skyrocketing interest rate on Greek government bonds following the financial crisis and the instability of the Greek banking sector. These interest rates could only be financed using the EU/IMF bailout money. From the point of view of financial speculators, the Greek sovereign debt crisis has been a hugely successful endeavour. If Greece drops out, the next country will surely follow. Avoiding this scenario of a potential collapse of the eurozone is in everybody’s interest. Also, while Mrs Merkel is certainly no friend of mine, she does see herself as a European with heart and soul. She doesn’t want the European project to fail while she is chancellor. 

Thirdly, from the point of view of the Greek government, the consequences of a Grexit would be absolutely catastrophic. You have probably read the Greek version of the Book of Revelation – but let me remind you of the best parts: pensions and public servants’ salaries would be received in a worthless currency; inflation would make imported products (like petrol) unaffordable; Greece has very little to export and thus has no way of getting out the mess in the medium-term future. Rising unemployment would lead to riots, demonstrations and finally new elections. A victory of far-right groups is not unthinkable. Any deal with the EU and the IMF is better than this.

Now, keep calm. You’re convinced...right? All this panic is all just a media scam... Surely, our representatives will act rationally...in the end…* So, I really hope that this post will be widely read, have a huge impact and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Otherwise I fear that we may all wake up from the European dream into a neo-nationalist nightmare.


*PS: Okay, fine. People don't act rationally. Neoliberals assume that they do, but they don't. A Greek default would thus be the ultimate defeat of rationalism and neoliberalism. Yet another reason why it can't happen.

The Greek Deal

Greece likes to see itself as an exceptional case. Think of the naming dispute with its neighbour in the north, or the paranoia about Turkish invasion causing an outrageously high military budget. In turns out that in matters of immigration, Greece too, forms an exceptional case. In the early 2010s, Greece has formed the hotspot of irregular immigration into the European Union. Hundreds of thousands of Africans, Afghans and Pakistanis live on Hellenic streets. It is impossible to find regular employment, and until recently, first-instance acceptance rates of asylum seekers had been less than 0.1%. Something was clearly very wrong in Greece.

Until last year, the Greek asylum system was managed and operated by the police. The police was responsible for the screening of all irregular immigrants, which means that regular police officers needed to ascertain the identity of all persons who crossed the border without passing through a border checkpoint. As was reported all over the press, Greece employed an extensive and relentless detention policy for so-called ‘illegal immigrants’. Hundreds of police stations all over the country served as temporary prisons for people who had committed no crime other than having crossed a border without valid documents. NGOs, the UNHCR and a countless number of institutions had condemned Greece for its inhumane policies. The vast majority of EU member states had furthermore suspended all so-called Dublin-transferrals, but the effects had been limited. Seeking asylum in Greece was either pointless or impossible. The police personnel that was responsible for asylum was both incompetent and hopelessly understaffed. The statements on first instance decisions were usually no longer than a page, and it was not seldom the case that people were queuing at police stations for days or weeks before they had a chance to ask for asylum.

The main offices of the Greek Asylum Service in Athens

In 2013 much of this changed. Greece set up a so-called First Reception Service which is took over the police’s role of screening irregular immigrants. They are still detained, but only for a couple of days until they are designated one of three labels: asylum seeker, humanitarian protection or illegal immigrant, with the vast majority being placed in the third category. Greece is a transit country. Hardly anyone really wants to apply for asylum. Furthermore, the Asylum Service was set up, staffed not by police officers but by civilians. Having been trained by the European Asylum Support Office, the Greek Asylum Service is far more competent than the police. Acceptance rates for first-instance decisions currently lie at 18% and are approaching the European average. Five regional asylum offices and one mobile unit have so far been set up in Athens, Thessaloniki, Orestiada, Rhodes and Lesbos. Clearly, this is progress, but much remains to be done. I have seen the queue outside the Asylum Service’s headquarters myself, and given that the number of regional offices is limited, access to the asylum procedure has, if anything, become even more difficult. One needs to consider that Greece is a country composed of thousands of islands, over 200 of which are inhabited. Furthermore, the Asylum Service is hopelessly understaffed. Forty case workers currently assess asylum applications while eighty are required. Funding is insecure. The NGO Metadrassi provides interpretation services for the Asylum Service, but it is funded by European funds which are regularly and rigorously reviewed. The fact of the matter is that even though the Greek asylum system has undergone a radical reform, Dublin-transferrals to Greece have not been resumed.

So what happened in Greece? Why has the Greek government decided to overhaul its asylum policy? The first trigger for change was a decision of the European Court of Justice which condemned the abhorrent human rights situation in Greece. An asylum seeker who entered the EU through Greece yet sought asylum in the UK challenged the provision of the Dublin-Regulation which demands his transferral to Greece, claiming that his human rights would be infringed due to the inability of the Greek asylum system to handle asylum applications properly. Mr Saeedi won the case, but the Dublin-Regulation is the cornerstone of the European asylum system – preventing the large-scale arrival of African refugees in core Europe depends on the functioning of the Dublin-system which essentially creates an asylum buffer zone in the EU periphery. Several member states, and first and foremost the European Commissionincreased pressure on Greece to reform the asylum system. The responsible Commissioner Malmström travelled to Greece several times – the political pressure was immense, and it was finally the cause of the deal between the EU and the Greek government.

This deal foresaw that the EU would support the fortification and patrolling of the Greek borders, while the Greek government would reform its asylum system, partially with European money. Frontex is omnipresent – both at the Greek maritime border and on the small land border. I witnessed the presence of Frontex in Orestiada, and I have heard of their activities by a member of the Hellenic Coastguard. The Greek First Reception Service is 75%-funded by EU money, and the Asylum Service relies on the assistance of the European Asylum Support Office to achieve the kind of quality that is needed.

Now we come to the heart of the matter: the Dublin-Regulation, which determines that the member state of first entry is responsible for an asylum application, creates a disincentive for Greece to set up a proper, functioning asylum system. The Greek government has created an asylum service, but it remains incapable of granting everyone immediate access to the asylum procedure. This is because the government has in interest is preventing the re-launch of Dublin-transferrals to Greece. The Greek government can therefore use the Dublin-Regulation as a pawn to squeeze more money out of European funds. “Yes, as you can see, we have tried to set up an asylum system, but we just don’t have the money to do it properly! You want to have Dublin-transferrals to Greece? Sure! Just give us the money, and we will build the type of asylum system you want.” Greece has no problem with taking care of asylum seekers per se. It merely has a problem with paying for them. At the same time, the rest of the EU, and particularly the core member states, have an interest in reinstating Dublin-transferrals to Greece. The Dublin-Regulation guarantees that African and Middle Eastern refugees will not enter Germany, France or the UK in huge numbers.

The Greek strategy works – it is only a matter of time until more money will begin to flow into the Greek Asylum Service and the First Reception Service. I am convinced that the people who actually work there have only the best of intentions, but their agencies are used as pieces on the political chessboard that is the European asylum system.

You have now read a lot about European and Greek interests, but have you noticed something? At no point are the interests of the refugees themselves taken into consideration. At no point is the question raised, “How does what we’re doing affect them?” Let us hope that this mentality will eventually change.

Greece

4 April 2014

My stay in Athens represents the second part of my field research. The reasons for my stay here are twofold: first of all, I have family here. Secondly, during my attempt to acquire authorisation for visiting the detention centre in Orestiada, I came across a high-level employee of the newly established Greek first-reception service, which is of course located in Athens. The person concerned was kind enough to offer me an interview, which I gladly accepted.

Greece is not just any European country. With a population of just 10 million, it is far smaller than the average member state, representation merely 2% of the EU-population. Nevertheless, the country has dominated international headlines because of its sovereign debt crisis that was caused by skyrocketing interest rates following the financial crisis of 2008. Severe austerity measures, arbitrary tax increases, ineffective governance and a corrupt political elite have brought the country into a situation, where unemployment has soared to 25%, where a highly militant, radical neo-Nazi party has enjoyed great popularity (up to 15% in the polls), and where the economy has been in severe recession for nearly half a decade. On top of all that, Greece has also been the hotspot of irregular migration into the EU. No country has been in the press more the Greece when it comes to the undignified treatment of migrants. My research agenda here was very open. I wanted to know about the relationship of the Greek asylum system with the EU, and about the experience of asylum seekers of European integration.

I have been here for two days now, and some of the insights I have gained have indeed been very interesting. When I arrived on Wednesday, I had an interview at night with the employee of the first-reception service I spoke about earlier. I found out that since last year, the structure of the Greek migration management system has undergone a radical transformation. Until last year, the police was responsible for the first reception of all ‘illegal immigrants’ as well as for asylum applications. Now, two new services have been set up.

Firstly, there is the first-reception service, which screens irregular migrants. Screening means determining whether an irregular migrants is an asylum seekers, a vulnerable person, or a non-asylum seeker. About 80% of irregular migrants are part of the third group. All members of this group should in theory be brought to so-called ‘pre-removal centres’ where they wait to be deported. These centres are the most notorious aspects of Greek migration management, and there are numerous reports about human rights abuses in these facilities. Most non-asylum seekers arrive without papers, which is why nationality determination is an essential aspect of screening. Nationality is determined by asking questions about a migrants’ supposed hometown, and by listening to her accent. Recently a large number of Syrians has arrived in Greece, most of whom similarly do not apply for asylum. Nevertheless, as a war wages in Syria, they cannot be sent back home, which is why they are released, often leaving Greece for applying for asylum in another EU member state. I was somewhat confused by this, as the Dublin-procedure would foresee for these migrants would have to be sent back to Greece. However, when I asked my interviewees about that, they simply said that this does not fall within their responsibility. Another aspect of screening is a medical check-up. The vast majority of migrants is vaccinated to prevent a public health threat to the EU. Refusal to be vaccinated would result in quarantine, although this apparently has not occurred. Furthermore, Greece is overwhelmingly regarded as a transit country. This is not an official statistic, but up to 90% of Greek irregular migrants have no intention whatsoever of staying in Greece. This sheds some light on why the number of asylum applications in Greece is very low. The first-reception service is 80%-funded from the EU, which may imply that it was the EU that pushed for Greece to change its migration management.

The high-level employee of the first-reception service told me that another service had been set up to deal with asylum applications: the asylum service. This was my next clue. I have tried without success to arrange an interview with that service, but I and Alex did a little excursion to the service’s headquarters which is located right next to Greece’s national police headquarters in Athens. I was told that in the morning there is a long queue of asylum seekers outside the asylum service’s offices. When we arrived we saw an Iranian couple who were rejected at the entrance to the building, even though they arrived well within the opening hours. We immediately called the attention of the service’s security employees, because I took a photo through the fence. However, I calmed them down, and told them that I had already spoken with someone inside over the phone to arrange an interview (which was indeed the case). An employee who I had unsuccessfully tried to call earlier that day came out of the building, and we were lucky enough to be able to chat with her for a good fifteen minutes. It is much easier to remember a conversation when two people try to do so, and with Alex’s help I was able to reconstruct most of what was said. It turns out that since the asylum service had been set up in early 2013, it became the only route in Greece to apply for asylum. The police was no longer responsible, and the asylum service has only a few officers. The person we spoke to acknowledged that this makes it more difficult for people to apply for asylum, although the service is currently in the process of setting up more offices. When you beat the queue to get into the office in Athens, it does not mean that you will have the chance to apply for asylum. All it means is that you will be able to receive information about how the process works. An asylum application requires the presence of an interpreter, which is difficult to arrange, especially in more remote locations. An NGO called Metadrassi is used to provide interpretation, and teleconferencing can sometimes help to overcome logistical problems. All in all, I had the impression that the employee from the Greek asylum service was sincerely interesting in protection – this is a good thing. However, I also began to understand where the complaints that not every irregular immigrant in Greece has the chance to apply for asylum may come from. I now had a further clue – Metadrassi. What kind of organisation is this? Why pays them, who set them up, and did they also support the police?

I was to get the answers to all these questions the following morning on the phone. Metadrassi is an NGO that was set up to give asylum seekers the possibility of applying for asylum through providing interpretation services. The person on the phone acknowledged that Greece had been condemned for human rights abuses for not allowing people to apply for asylum. Metadrassi intended to change this situation. The NGO also worked with the police, but apparently there were some problems and this cooperation seized. Cooperation with the new asylum service is apparently much smoother, as the asylum service apparently does ‘real work’. Metadrassi receives its funds mostly from the EU, employing 200 active interpreters who can translate from thirty different languages.

I have to say that I am left with more questions than I had when I arrived:

·       The Greek asylum system is taken out of the hands of the police – why? This question I could answer by speaking to the police. I have made arrangements for an interview to take place.

·       Is it really true that the police is no longer responsible? The person I spoke to at the first-reception service used to work in the prison system, and had a police email address. Perhaps the police mentality persists. Again, the police may be able to help here. I could also speak to the first-reception service once more.

·       In the last couple of years the migratory routes have changed, and Greece receives far less irregular migration. This has to do mostly with the smugglers. But why have the smugglers changed their routes? If the Greek police or even Frontex had attempted to cause the smugglers to change their routes, this would be a major international scandal. Speaking to the police/Frontex would probably not tell me anything, and I would have to speak with the smugglers themselves. I don’t have the first clue for how to do that though.

·       Why does the Greek government attempt to screen every irregular migrant? Is Frontex here to make sure of that? Who requested Frontex’s presence? It is not in the Greek interest to screen migrants, as this means that Greece is responsible for their potential asylum applications. Clearly, the EU has put pressure on Greece to screen migrants, and perhaps Frontex is here to supervise this process. Interviewing Frontex officers might answer these questions.

Tomorrow I have an interview with someone from a Greek immigrants’ organisation, with the former head of the Greek coast guard in the Aegean, and I am also planning on visiting an accommodation centre for asylum seekers.

Chasing Frontex through Orestiada

19 March 2014

I had great expectations for today’s trip to Orestiada, but unfortunately they were not met with results. I did not visit the detention centre, and the person responsible for granting the authorisation was not available. However, today’s efforts where not totally in vain – research, especially research that builds in critical grounded theory, is not about everything going as planned. In this light it would be heretical to know exactly what I am going to do at what time. Research agendas build themselves. Let me tell you what happened.

This is the GR-TR border fence and stretches on for 12km

I got up early and drove up to the border checkpoint near the Greek village of Kastaniés, which is about a ten minute drive. As I wrote before, the entire frontier area is highly militarised. I had the chance to take a few good shots of the border fence, and to speak with a couple of Greek soldiers. One of them was particularly talkative, and I could ask some questions. The explanation for the level of militarisation does indeed lie with illegal immigration. I was told that the number of people who used to cross this border ‘illegally’ was once very high. Since the ‘wall’, as the soldier referred to it, was erected, that number has dropped. They didn’t want to give me more precise information, and there was some discussion among the soldiers when I asked about this. From what little Greek I understood, I could tell that they were not happy to reveal details.

Behind the border a got a ride to Orestiada pretty quickly. The first thing the guy who picked me up told me, was that one has to be careful with hitchhikers these days. If you pick up a Pakistani, you can get into real trouble with the police.

At about 13.00 I made it to the Orestiada police station. Everybody spoke English, and the police officers were generally very approachable. I was surprised at the number of women in uniforms. After I told them that I was doing research on refugees, and that I was from Liverpool University, I was taken sufficiently seriously for them to call someone they thought may help me. I was asked to take the phone and spoke with the police station’s press officer. He was also very friendly, telling me that the only person who could give me an interview was the director of Orestiada’s police. Well, this sounded great! The problem was that they had received no information about my arrival from the national police office in Athens. Unless they give an authorisation, no interview would take place. I tried calling Athens to ask about my fax and my email, but the person responsible had a day off.

Trying to get a ride back to Turkey

I had lunch (best food on the trip) and went back to the police station at 14.30 to call the press officer again, just to see whether they were any news. As I approached the building, I suddenly noticed two guys in German (!) police uniforms. They also wore the characteristic blue arms bands with EU flags and the word FRONTEX on them. I didn’t want to leave Orestiada empty-handed, so I introduced myself. They were pretty friendly and, in principle, they were open to an interview – but not without authorisation the headquarters of Frontex in Warsaw. They were volunteers from Cologne, and told me that there were also some Dutch Frontex police in Orestiada. Then they had to go. I went inside the police station to make my phone call, when another two huge German police officers arrived. They too were from Frontex and seemed like the biggest guys I had ever seen. They pointed at me, saying, “That’s the guy.” I was on the phone though, and couldn’t speak to them. They went through a wordless procedure with the Greek police, and left after a half a minute. I finished my phone call (the press officer told me to come back with the authorisation on another day), left the building and watched the police officers disappear around a street corner. I was very curious about what they were doing in Orestiada, but their presence remains intriguing.

I wanted to speak to these guys, so I called Frontex in Warsaw. I got through to the right person straight away, who seemed very keen on helping me. She couldn’t promise anything, but told me that she would try to arrange for an interview on the same day. I called back an hour later, only to be told that the Frontex officer in Oresiada was unavailable, and that an email has been sent out. I knew at this point that I would not speak to anybody today. I waited for another hour in the sun for a potential phone call, but I didn’t really believe it was going to come. Eventually I made my way back home. It was very easy to hitch a ride back to Turkey.

What did I take from this day? I know now more or less exactly what I need to do. I need to get authorisation for interviews from Warsaw and Athens. The detention centre is 25km outside Orestiada in the middle of nowhere. I will have to come back here, and I need to have a car. This story is not over.

Today was the last day of this short research trip to Thrace, but I will return in a few weeks. So long!

"If you are illegal, you're just a shadow"

17 March 2014

So this has been the first day of my research. I would not say that I have been exceptionally lucky. Only some of what I hoped to accomplish got done, but at least there is hope. But I’ll come to that later. Let me first tell you about the intricacies of this day, which has indeed been rather eventful…and tiring, awfully tiring. After a short night of terrible sleep, I found a copyshop pretty much straight away, and printed lots of consent forms for just €1. A true bargain. I also had a nice conversation with a Masters-student who studied architecture in Edirne. I hopped into my rental car, and left Edirne for the Turkish-Bulgarian border. And what a border it was – a veritable fortress. I passed the frontier checkpoint without any problems, but at the Turkish customs checkpoint they realised that I didn’t have proper papers for my car, but only a car rental agreement. Unfortunately this agreement contained a clause that forbade me from leaving Turkey. The customs officer even called the rental car company, which very much made clear that their vehicles have to remain within the country. Thus I was turned back at the border. I was told to go to the border police to cancel the exit stamp in my passport. After a confusing drive across the border checkpoint, I made it to the police station. I made use of the opportunity to try and get an interview, but without success. Nobody spoke English. I drove back into Turkey, parked my car, and made up my mind to hitchhike! As an experienced backpacker, walking across border checkpoints was something that I was used to, but I have never had to show my passport as many times on a single day as I have had to do today. The checkpoint was indeed weird: there were section for border control, sections for customs, and just sections for ‘controls’. What exactly they were controlling I don’t know – usually it sufficed to wave the pretty burgundy red of an EU-passport at them.

Border TR-BG

 About half an hour later, at around 10.45, I had made it across the checkpoint. Determined not to leave from this odyssey empty-handed, I introduced myself to about everyone I met who was wearing a uniform. The problem is, that if you don’t speak the local language – Turkish – people act as though you don’t exist. They just don’t take you seriously. You can say whatever you want – most border policemen won’t even try to understand you. Nevertheless, I had one extremely interesting encounter. When I asked for interviews at the Bulgarian border police, a guy was sunbathing outside who wore a blue armband with an EU flag on it. I asked whether he speaks German (in Bulgaria, most of the older generation seem to know some German), to which he ironically replied, “A little.” I could tell immediately that he was Austrian. Upon closer inspection his armband turned out to say ‘Frontex’ in some pretty bold letters. He wasn’t ready to be interviewed, although I assured him that everything he says will remain anonymous (he claimed that he was forbidden from being interviewed). Nevertheless, he gave me some pretty useful information. He volunteered for Frontex and according to him, problems related to immigration in Bulgaria are ‘minimal’. Of course, his mere presence states the opposite… He pointed out that problems with refugees exist not in Bulgaria, but in Sicily and on Greek islands. If I wanted to speak with someone, I should go to the border protection command in Svilengrad.

Welcome to Bulgaria

Well, this is precisely where I was headed next. Hitchhiking to Svilengrad was easy. I was picked up by a Bulgarian minibus that was full of women. Only the drivers were men. In fact, one of the drivers, Mustafa, used to sell Turkish delicacies in Paunsdorf Center, a well-known shopping mall in Leipzig. Funny to meet a guy like that 2000km from home. I was served a chocolate bar, water and Fanta as we drove past a queue of hundreds of lorries that stretched on for many miles. Finally they dropped me off at a junction near Svilengrad. The contrast between Svilengrad and Edirne was shocking. The city appeared to be in severe decline. Abandoned industrial areas, rusty fences, potholed roads – those were my first impressions. The presence of vast amounts of horse carriages in many ways made me feel like a time traveller. I was wondering whether this is what refugees expected when they crossed the external border of the European Union. I had spaghetti for lunch at a pretty neat restaurant for €1.30. At the town hall I managed to arrange for my first interview. It was not with the local expert on asylum questions, but with what appeared to be the only person who spoke English.

Although the person I spoke to was not an expert, it was nevertheless a very insightful conversation. Svilengrad does indeed have a problem with ‘irregular immigration’. My interviewee, Petar, is one of the people responsible for managing projects funded with European money. Petar[1] was of the opinion that the Bulgarian government gives more to those migrants than it gives to its own people. While refugees receive beds and shelter, many Bulgarians do not possess such luxuries. Petar’s explanation of the sudden influx of thousands of Syrians into Bulgaria is that the Bulgarian government is in the mood to just give to everybody, while countries like Greece and Turkey make clear that refugees are unwanted. He confirmed that refugees are a hot problem in the public debate, although he was not politically-minded, and thus unable to speak about the issue in more detail. What Petar did tell me though, is that some families are afraid of letting their kids play in the streets out of fear of the migrants. After all, one never knows who these people are. They may be rich, having escaped a war, or they may be criminals. Petar told me about the Pastrogor open centre that was just out of town. He said that the place was overcrowded, and told me a story of a clothes collection that had been organised by some residents of Svilengrad. Everybody participated, and a whole truck full of clothes was gathered for the Syrians of Pastrogor. When the donations were delivered, the refugees refused to take them. They said that they did not need clothes, but beds and heaters. Petar interpreted this as them being ungrateful. There are stories going around of thefts, although they have not been reported in the media. Petar was unaware of there being major problems in Greece. He called Dublin a stupid rule, although he was not very well-informed about the exact nature of the regulation.

Poster I saw in the Svilengrad border police station

Before leaving for Pastrogor, I had another look around town. I found the central border police station, and made some interesting discoveries. The first thing that struck me was a poster in the police station that read, “If you’re illegal, you’re just a shadow. The legal way, is the only way.” It had an EU flag printed underneath. Clearly immigration was an issue here. I spoke to a police officer, who, although not wanting to be interviewed, told me about the process of applying for asylum in Bulgaria. The first thing that happens is that you come to Svilengrad’s border police station to be interviewed. I asked to speak to the person responsible, but she was on holiday. After Svilengrad, detention follows in Lyubimets, another town about half an hour away. Once the concerned person’s identity has been established, they may reside on Pastrogor. The border police officer advised me to visit both the open centre in Pastrogor, and the detention centre in Lyubimets. For the latter I would however need authorisation.

Pastrogor open centre

It turned out that authorisation is required for visiting Pastrogor as well, which is not that open after all. I had to take a cab to get to the place (€4), which was right in the middle of nowhere. My first impression was very good. In fact, from the outside, this looked like the best-taken care of refugee camp I had ever seen. The grass for green, the courtyard was tidy, and the walls were freshly painted, pleasantly orange. I found out later that the camp was just five months old. Yet again, English was difficult to get by with. After trying to introduce myself unsuccessfully, I was forwarded to the camp’s chief of security. He made clear that I could not just walk in and say hello, refusing also to introduce me to the camp’s residents. He referred me to an agency in Sofia, giving me their address, and asking me to leave. He had no problem if I spoke to refugees outside the camp’s boundaries, which, by the way, were secured with barbed wire.

Me being a pale guy with brighter-than-usual hair however, I got the residents’ attention pretty quickly. Not a minute passed before I spoke to a guy who asked me where I was from. I conversed with him using all the Arabic I could think of before he called a friend of his who spoke better English. He also lived in Pastrogor, and happen to just get out of a taxi with his wife and lots of groceries. Petar was right. Most people at the camp was well-dressed, probably better-dressed than most Bulgarians. At a first glance, one did get the impression that the residents of Pastrogar were well taken care of. The guy who got out of the taxi spoke very good English, and after introducing myself as a PhD student from Liverpool, he was more than happy to speak to me – tomorrow. Still, this was a start. I took his number and told him that I would call before I come.

I decided that I should get back to Edirne. I was somewhat frustrated at the staff’s refusal to help me, and it was getting late. Hitchhiking next to a refugee camp in the middle of nowhere was easier than I thought, and an elderly man brought me to the road that leads to the Turkish border. From there I was picked up by a Bulgarian customs officer who spoke some German, but not enough to tell me his opinion on immigration. I was back in Turkey pretty quickly. As I walked to my rental car, I was a whole series of German and Austrian ambulances which had ‘Project Syria’ printed on them. I am guessing that they are going to the war zone to provide some medical assistance.

Bridge across the pretty mighty Evros river

My efforts to enter Bulgaria via automobile were unsuccessful, but that did not necessarily mean that I could not enter Greece in this way. The Greek border is even closer to Edirne, being literally a couple of hundred meters away from the city centre. I drove across the Evros/Maritsa river, and I became instantly aware that this would be a nearly impenetrable obstacle for any refugee trying to get to Europe. The Evros forms the vast majority of the Greco-Turkish border. Only a small part, right next to Edirne, is an unnatural land border. The border checkpoint between Greece and Turkey was very different. Controls were minimal, but the whole area was highly militarised. The notorious fence scars the landscape. It is about two meters high and stretches on as far as the eye can see. On both sides it is secured by military bases, which are themselves surrounded by barbed wire. Upon seeing that river and that fence, it became blatantly clear why Bulgaria was suddenly experiencing an influx of refugees – it did not possess frontier fortifications of this type. Once again I was turned away at the border because of my car being rented. A chat with the Turkish border police revealed that there were no problems with immigration here, and that instances of asylum applications were rare at most. I am guessing that this situation is rather new – why else would this border be more militarised than a Cold War frontline. Maybe the guy was just making fun of me.

Abandoned Kastaniés train station

As I went for a walk into Greece I was barely asked once for my passport. I saw Turkish soldiers playing volleyball, and Greek soldiers playing basketball. Kastaniés, the Greek village on the border, appeared a lot tidier than anything else I have seen so far. I strolled through the village, which blazed with freshly mowed lawns and neatly cut hedges. I walked to the train station, hoping to get a good look at the border fence. I was disappointed though. The station lay abandoned, and as the sun set, I could only make out the fence around the military base – the fence around the fence. I made my way back to Turkey.

I have a meeting in Pastrogor tomorrow. Something to look forward to, and something to place my hopes in.

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[1] Name has been changed.

The Cynics Win: European Asylum Policy 130 Deaths Later

Hundreds of dead refugees on Europe’s shores on a single day should give us cause to reflect on the basic principles of the European asylum policy, but cynics would not be disappointed if they heard the responses of our policy-makers today. “Can we do more? Sure, but that’s the member states’ responsibility,” says a spokesman of Home Affairs Commissioner Malmström. “Be under no illusion,” he continues, “it is not realistic to think that every tragedy, every death in the Mediterranean can be avoided. We are neither naïve nor too idealistic.” Between 1993 and October 2012 there have been 17,306 documented refugee deaths along the borders of Europe. This week this is already the second incident. Is it idealistic to think of a different Europe that does everything in its power to save those lives? The mass grave that the Mediterranean has become is the price that the European Union and its member states are willing to pay to prevent refugees from ever crossing our borders.

Bulgaria's border with Turkey

I have to say I did not mean to start this post like this. The issue that I want to talk about is another, even though it is closely related. Alex, me and our dog Napoleon have recently driven all the way to Greece, crossing Romania and Bulgaria on the way. Although both countries have been members of the EU for some time, we have had to show our ID-cards at the border, as they have not been permitted to enter the Schengen Area. Last week it has been France that has voiced its opposition the loudest, although Germany has been equally vocal. Ever wondered why? Well, it seems that some journalists have come to some very insightful conclusions on the matter. Reuters links it to a supposed “new influx of immigrants if Romanian and Bulgarian citizens are allowed to travel freely without passports in the Schengen zone.” France24 thinks immediately of a potential Roma-issue, ignoring that the border between Romania and Hungary poses no frontier to EU-citizens, which the Roma in question clearly are. In reality the reason for the Franco-German veto is to be found elsewhere, and it becomes quite apparent when one looks at the map of Europe. At the moment, the Schengen Area has only one border with Turkey, via which a large part of Europe’s irregular immigrations currently enter the EU, and that border is with Greece. From Greece, one has to either take a ferry to Italy, which is next to impossible for a refugee without being spotted, or one needs to attempt crossing another border illegally. If Romania and Bulgaria were to join Schengen, one could easily travel to the EU-core without the need for any further hassle. Keeping Romania and Bulgaria out of Schengen avoids such a scenario.

In 1996 Sarah Collinson wrote about the construction of a European asylum buffer zone. In 2013, this buffer zone has, for the most part, been realised. In this case, a buffer zone is created by the unfounded and systematic exclusion of Romania and Bulgaria from the Schengen Area. Greece is thus deliberately cut off from the mainland EU, preventing irregular migrants from reaching the European core. The only way for irregular migrants into legality is an asylum application, as regular immigration requires either a rich country’s passport or a job in the EU with an income of over €60,000. If an asylum application is finally submitted, the Dublin-Regulation establishes that in many cases an asylum application needs to be handled by the member state of first entry into the EU. To verify which member state that is, the fingerprints of every irregular migrant are taken upon first contact with public officials. The idea behind these rules is that if an immigrant is able to illegally enter a member state’s territory, it is that same member state’s responsibility to deal with them, and to finance and lodge them while their application is processed. If you have an external border, you thus want to do everything in your power to prevent asylum seekers from entering your territory. I have had this confirmed by an official from within the Commission during my PhD research, whose name I cannot give here. The European Commission says that it can do nothing, that it is up to the member states to create a more humane asylum system. This is a fallacy. The Dublin-Regulation, which the Commission itself has proposed, is in part responsible for the ever-increasing fortification of the EU. The Dublin-system has to end, and it is the role of the Commission to propose an alternative.

Next weekend, at the party congress of the Saxon SPD, I will have five minutes to speak on a substantial reform of the European asylum system along the lines of a previous blogpost. I had drafted a proposal on this, which has now been submitted the party in the name of the working group “Migration and Diversity” of the Saxon SPD. If the proposal is accepted, it will be forwarded to the national party congress, where it will again have to be presented. Wish me good luck that things are going to work out. If this all works out as planned, it could really make a difference.

Harald Köpping

Collinson, S. (1996). Visa Requirements, Carrier Sanctions, 'Safe Third Countries' and 'Readmission': The Development of an Asylum Buffer Zone in Europe. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 21 (1). 76-90.

The Latest Act of the Greek Tragedy: Public Broadcasters and European Democracy

Last Tuesday I went to see Before Midnight in the cinema. I loved the fact that it was filmed in the Southern Peloponnese, and when I come back home, I realize that ERT - the Greek television and radio broadcaster - is closed. Some times ago we were saying here in this blog that the crisis is not over despite what the head of the Greek government was saying. Once again events are proving us right.

As shocked as many other people, I immediately reacted on the spot to share my disagreement. The comment caused some of my Facebook friends to point out that I should get myself informed about the wages of the people in ERT and how ERT has been continually wasting Greek state funds. I have many feelings on this event that I will try to share here as clearly as possible. On the one side you need to understand that I am part of the Greek diaspora, being born and raised in Brussels and that I therefore have a particularly emotional attachment to ERT. I will thus argue why it is important to for Greece to have a public broadcaster.

Fired ERT employees

Today I am a 25 year old greek who has lived all her life outside Greece. However, when I go to Greece no one can tell. I speak, read and write Greek fluently and I understand all Greek cultural references. Why is that? My parents of course, we spoke Greek at home and they also insisted on the fact that my brother and I go to Greek school as kids. Like all kids we hated it, but at the end of the day I am so grateful to my parents for forcing us to go, because Greek school was an important factor in the construction of my Greek identity. But there would have been no Greek school without the Greek state which funds Greek teachers in countries where there is a big Greek community. Without this service, me and my brother would not consider ourselves Greek today.

The same happens for the Greek broadcaster ERT. I remember the first time we watched Greek TV in Belgium: I was so exited that I was gonna be able to watch TV in Greek like I did during my holidays. Of course I was quickly disappointed because the series I used to watch were broadcasted by private channels. But as I grew up I became more and more interested in Greek public life and ERT was definitely a part of it. Without it I would not have been able to follow the debates that were going on in Greece, as in my house we did not get a computer until I was 17. So as a part of the Greek diaspora, ERT has been for years the link between me and Greece, a link that has now come to disappear. Of course internet is here and I have the possibility to get informed through it. But don’t forget that I am fluent in Greek, which is not the case for the entire Greek diaspora, and all those people who sometimes are further away than I am from Greece, won’t have the possibility to perpetuate their link with Greece. But this is not the first case where the Greek state has completely ignored its immigrant communities. Greeks who leave abroad cannot vote in Greek national elections, they have pay money to take a plane and go to Greece if they want to vote.

What shocked me the most in all this story is the lack of public debate on the issue, not even in the Greek Parliament. The whole thing was decided though a ministerial ruling that did not need to go through the Greek Parliament. I am not an expert on Greek public law, but when I was studying Belgian public law they taught us that a ministerial ruling is supposed to help the implementation of a law that was passed through the Parliament. I still struggle to understand the logic behind shutting down ERT. I doubt that the government would close the Greek public electricity provider (ΔΕΗ) or the water provider (ΕΥΔΑΠ) so abruptly - it would create chaos in Greece. So on Tuesday the Greek government decided that the right to information was a secondary right of Greek citizens at the moment, thereby de facto bringing the country 30 years back. The governments leaves the right to information to private interests because what is left today in Greece are private channel and radios whose main aim is entertainment.

From the reactions in the international media, but also by Greeks in Greece and abroad it looks like the government underestimated the importance of its public broadcaster. In fact, I believe that every democratic country should have a public broadcaster that reflects the public interests. The Lisbon Treaty agrees with me, stating that “the system of public broadcasting in the Member States is directly related to the democratic, social and cultural needs of each society and to the need to preserve media pluralism.” But I will make a small clarification because I read somewhere that shutting down ERT is against the Lisbon Treaty. It is not. What the Lisbon Treaty says is that the Member States have the right to finance a public broadcaster as long as it does not go against the rules of trade and competition of the EU. Basically what it means is that the European Commission did not have the right to ask the Greek government to close ERT. That is why yesterday the spokesperson of the Commission made clear that the EC never asked such a thing from the Greek government. That would have been against the Treaties.

Now what the Greek government has been saying all this time is that ERT did not reflect the public interest and was a nod of clientelism and corruption, which drained the state finance. Well with that definition in mind I can think of some other Greek institutions that need to be shut down. For example today the Greek Parliament has 300 parliamentarians; for a country of 10 million people it is way too much. Why not cut their number in half??

Anyway, once again it seems that this 'euro crisis' has set a bad precedent in European politics that undermines the supposedly democratic features of Greece and of the European Union. But what also pisses me off the most is that now international media are shocked by what is happening in Greece. This 360 degree turn of discourse in the media, comes a bit late. Well, but better late than never...

EUtopia Lost? Thoughts on Austerity

I am truly worried about Europe. I am currently marking essays on the effects of austerity on the eurozone. Perhaps two out of 250 students wrote that deeper integration of the EU would be a way out of the crisis. As a Europeanist, I had always placed my hopes in my generation: a generation of travellers and exchange students, a generation that loves to learn new languages, a generation that experiences the achievements of European integration every day when they use the euro. I read today that particularly the youth of the European south is losing confidence in the European institutions. In France the majority believes that European integration has harmed the French economy. Austerity is devouring the backbone of this Union.

Europe's youth is becoming disillusioned

One would think that the idea of austerity as a means to resolve economic crises had been abandoned ages ago. John Maynard Keynes understood in the 1930s that times of crisis require programmes to boost the economy, and that do not suffocate it. Nevertheless, Europe has chosen the path of austerity. When Germany’s unemployment surpassed reached nearly 5 million in 2005 (11,4%), the Schröder-government introduced austerity measures to fight unemployment. Unemployment benefits were controversially cut quite radically, and the German welfare system received a serious blow. Nevertheless, the policy was afterwards justified by its success. Germany today has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU, and it is among the few countries that have survived the crisis relatively unscathed. Following the German example of the 2000s, countries lacking an industrial base embraced austerity, thereby fulfilled conditions that allowed them to receive bail-outs from the IMF and the eurozone. Germany is competing with China over the title of being the world’s largest exporter. Its entire economy is built around exports. A policy that keeps wages low has the same effect as the devaluation of one’s currency. However, such policies only make sense if the economy is based on exports. The economies of the European south are based on domestic consumptions – austerity is bound to fail. The current German dominance in Europe is encouraging the application of a model that is not applicable to economies like those of Spain or Greece.

At the same time, unemployment skyrockets. Europe is largely a post-industrial region with the lowest fertility rate in the word. Never has there been a generation that is proportionally as tiny as mine. While 35% of the population were below 20 in 1950, today merely 20% are below 20. I am part of a small generation, but youth unemployment is higher than ever. Austerity has caused youth unemployment in Spain to skyrocket from 17% in 2007 to over 50% in 2013. Greece, Portugal, Italy and Ireland have experienced similar developments. The blame for this is inevitably and rightly directed at European leaders. Instead of regulating a banking industry that has caused the crisis in the first place, it was decided in the European Council to implement austerity measures that have crippled half the continent. The European Council is an intergovernmental institution that it dominated by the strongest member states, and most Europeans have no say about who leads those member states. There is a time for any emotion, and if you understand what is going on here, you have every right to feel frustration, helplessness, and also anger, against the incompetence, coldness and supposed hyper-rationality of the politicians of our time.

Youth unemployment in the EU

In the the Bible says that a people without vision are doomed. I had always thought that the unification of Europe could provide this vision - I see it not only as a vision for Europeans, but for all of humanity, because it proves that people can work together, and that national divisions are insignificant. This EU has no chance to survive unless its institutions are fundamentally reformed, allowing for a European government that is democratically elected by all Europeans. Austerity is not the choice of Europeans – democracy in the EU is also in crisis. Austerity turning the tides against European integration, and if you believe that the crisis is over, think again.

Harald Köpping

Inconvenient Truths: Lessons from Europe's Past

War brings out the worst in people. That was the message of the new trilogy produced by ZDF about WW2. That is also the message, that Martin Schulz, the current president of the European Parliament wrote in his analysis of the movie today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine. I have been living in Germany for more than a year now, at the great despair of my parents, and I was astonished from the very start by the amount of documentaries about WW2 and all the aspect of the Nazi regime are shown on TV here. It has become a game between Harald and me. Every night he turns on the TV on a channel that shows a documentary about Germany between 1933 and 1945, and I tell him half-shocked, half-amused, “You Germans are so obsessed!” I have always thought, maybe because of my education, that this time was over, part of another era. That the European integration process had waved away bad memories, and that as we move on, this part of Europe’s dark past will forever stay where it belongs: in the history books. The euro crisis proved me wrong; it proved that everything that has been done in western Europe since the end of the Second World War was a very fragile construction.

Five friends' naivity before the war experience

Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter, is probably the first German movie that I saw about WW2. I haven’t seen all three parts yet, but I am definitely recommending it. I wish they could translate it and show it in Greece, because I have experienced something that I profoundly dislike. It started last Easter when Harald and I went to Greece to spend it with my family. After the traditional lamb a neighbor came over and said to me, that we should say that Harald is Austrian because you never know. There are people out there who might not like the fact that he is German. Harald and I laughed of course at the ridiculousness of the comment. But now that I think about it, it is not that ridiculous. Greek media have bombarded Greek public opinion about how the Merkel-Schäuble block wants to destroy the south. Naturally, it was not long until the first pictures of Merkel portrayed as Hitler were published. It was not long until people started talking about comparing the current situation to WW2. This of course pisses off Harald. Germany lost 10% of its population during the war, Greece 4,5%. and the traces of the war are still visible today in Germany in nearly every street.

Schulz reminds Germans of the great gift that the rest of Europe gave to Germany, allowing it to come back to the table of nations, that the Schuman Plan came as an alternative to Versailles, that it was forgiving and not vengeful. This is the existing narrative of European integration; the narrative of forgiveness. Having this narrative in mind it becomes quite difficult to understand the current situation. European bureaucrats are ill equipped to respond or to understand what is happening in the south. The reality is that France’s initial plan for Germany (as drafted by Monnet) was a very Versailles-style treaty. It was only after American pressure that the Schuman Plan was created. The reality is also that for long Germany was punished, divided by the great powers of this world. The fifty years of socialism are condemned to stay in history books as a dark period, and East Germans today are expected to adopt the history of West Germany.

I have many times compared the Weimar Republic to the current situation in Greece. Economic despair can bring out the worst in people; so can uncertainty about the future. Hopelessness brings out the worst of societies. Both the Weimar Republic and today’s Greece are the victims of our economic system. A system that puts profit and money above people; a system that counts wars as positive and health and education as negative in our GDP; a system that puts a monetary value on life (human and animal); a system that made the majority of people in Cyprus defend the money of the top 1% who have never given a crap about the poor. I was shocked when I saw Cypriot citizens defend their banks and rich people’s money (because when you have above than 100,000 euros in the bank you are rich). I heard that the Cypriot government, in an attempt not to touch the bank’s deposits, suggested tax increased and wage and pensions cuts. We are all the victims of our economic system. Unfortunately we prefer to blame easier targets.

Coming back to the movie and Schulz’s comments, I wish that they could be translated in Greek. I wish both Greek and German public spheres would interact more and better. In reality Germany was never allowed to forget about its Nazi past, but all other European countries were allowed to forget about their inconvenient fascist or nationalist pasts. Greeks should be reminded of dangers of all extreme nationalism and Germans should be reminded of the failure of the West German model in East Germany. “East Germans resent the wealth possessed by West Germans; West Germans see the East Germans as lazy opportunists who want something for nothing. East Germans find Wessis arrogant and pushy, West Germans think Ossis are lazy and good-for-nothing” (The Transparent State: Architecture in Politics in Postwar Germany, by D. Barnstone). Reminds you of anything? It’s ironic isn’t it?

Alexandra Athanasopoulou

An Endless Ebb – Update on the Situation in Greece

After three weeks in Greece, and after the previous posts of the refugee crisis, I feel the need to write down what I’ve seen and heard in that country. The media in Germany are what I am exposed to the most, and while it is doubtless that they have had a certain amount of influence on me, I still think that I have done my best to view things critically, and to not swallow every bit of slander that the infamous BILD has attempted to spread about the Greeks. Anger at those false portrayals of a lazy people and at the reckless lies that worsen the crisis are what got this blog started in the first place, so let’s get back to that, and talk about what Greece was like through the eyes of a guest from Leipzig.

While German media was consensually identified laziness, foul play and corruption as the ultimate origin of the Greek tragedy, the Greek media have on their part seemingly pointed out the true roots the mess. Anger at past and present Greek governments is only matched and possibly surpassed by anger at Germany and its politicians. For reasons that are quite unclear to me, both Greek TV stations and newspapers see Germany as the chief villain of Europe, and thus also as a main cause of the current impoverishment of the population, ignoring that the demands of the conservative government are not very different from those of the Commission. I was often asked where I was from, and every time my stomach started twisting before I said ‘Germany’, knowing what would go through people’s minds as soon as they heard the answer. One taxi driver hit the nail on its head, when he (albeit jokingly) responded, “Ah, so you are the enemy!”

Abandoned shops in the old city of Nafplio

Another thing that struck me was a nationalist sentiment that I, as a German, am probably particularly sensitive to. The national flag hanging from every lamp post, every kiosk, and lots of balconies was something that Europeans found so disturbing when the US suffered its own wave of ultra-patriotism after 9/11. I was under the impression that Greece is experiencing the same syndrome, a country where the presence of a Greek flag on a product is a marketing mechanism. Of course, I understand that in times of crisis people want to buy products made in their own country, probably I would do the same, but is it really a good idea to put a sticker on your shop that proudly proclaims, ‘We only sell Greek products’? Apart from the nationalism there is something else that bothers me about the idea that a slightly altered shopping behaviour can make a difference. This idea delivers the message that responsibility for the crisis ultimately lies with the ordinary people who go to the bakery to buy tiropites. Responsibility lies with people who have brought 4 billion euros outside the country every month since 2009 – the people who did that hate their country, and their money could have done so much to help the situation. Responsibility lies with the banks who have given Greece cheap credit in the first place, and responsibility lies with corrupt governments.

The crisis in Greece is certainly visible to the naked eye, particularly in the tourist destinations. We spoke with the owner of a restaurant in the main city of Naxos, who told us that since 2009 there has been a steady decline in tourists, and that in 2012 their income has plummeted particularly. I saw the once-crowded city centre of Piraeus derelict and abandoned, stickers reading ‘ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΖΕΤΑΙ’(which means ‘for rent’) everywhere, nearly empty cafés and the boarded windows and doors of closed shops. Last time I went to beautiful Nafplio in 2008, I found a small town bustling with life, while this year’s visit showed Nafplio as a depressingly empty place. With petrol prizes competing with Scandinavia, and with incomes having plunged, things that used to be normal have become luxuries in a matter of a few years.

So, I want to end this post with an appeal: if you are reading this planning to go on a last-minute holiday in September, I urge you to go to Greece (I can confirm that Naxos as an amazing island, with golden beaches and great, hospitable people), and to help people who have become victims of financial speculators. Tourism is one of the main sources of income for Greece, and there is absolutely no reason not to visit its hundreds of beautiful islands.

Harald Köpping

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"If nothing matters, there is nothing to save" - Immigration in Greece

For me, what is worse is the mainstream discourse that surrounds the immigration issue. Today a member of the government stated that Greece has reached its limits and that illegal immigration is bringing Greece to the edge of collapse.* At the same time, the headlines of major newspapers referred to the government’s “epixirisi skoupa”, the hoover operation. It is amazing that from this word alone we can already deduce so many things. The government is cleaning up the country, putting the garbage away. The easiness with which people are dehumanised has always struck me. It then does not matter what the conditions in the camps are or how refugees are sent back to their countries. Nothing matters except the fact that they have to disappear. What is even more worrying is that it is not Chrisi Avgi that I am talking about but the Greek government. I am talking about parties of the centre having this kind of discourse, as if the refugees are the reason the crisis came in the first place. The government is stigmatizing these people because they are an easy target, because they have no legal rights and no possibility to make their voice heard. The government is stigmatizing them because they are clearly identifiable whereas those who are really responsible for the crisis are not easily distinguishable; because it is easier to blame a Pakistani than to blame the corrupted civil servant or the tax evador. It is easier to blame them than to blame us.

Immigrants in Greece

In Greece there is a crisis this is undeniable, but stigmatizing and chasing people who are poorer and worse off than you, and then asking other European governments to show solidarity, is hypocritical. This applies to the individual level as well; how can you ask others to show solidarity with you, if you consider people who risked their lives more than once to come here garbage? I would like to quote Jonathan Foer in his book Eating Animals: “If nothing matters, there is nothing to save.” Human rights and moral standards are not concepts that you can stretch and bend as much as you like and require. There is not a morality that is suitable for good times and another that you can apply in times of crisis, because then there are no more moral standards. It is even worse if you consider the fact that the majority of people here proudly call themselves Christians. If I recall correctly Jesus said “love your neighbour as you love yourself”. I always thought that it is in times of crisis that you can see the best and the worst of people and societies.  For now I have seen the worst. Now I hope for the best.

Alexandra Athanasopoulou

*That Greece is on the edge of collapse is ridiculous – EU funds for the improvement of the situation in the refugee camps have been available for months, but the Greek government is not using them.

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