Kainaat: But, based on what you are saying, do you consider yourself Greek? I mean, you said you were born here, raised here, and have lived here your entire life, and think of Greece as home. But then you said you are not Greek. Can you explain the difference, like what do you mean by that?
Thalia: I guess I know what you are asking, but no, I am not Greek. Do I feel Greek? Yes, but am I Greek? Ummm, no!
Do you understand the difference? (laughs while asking)
Kainaat: Umm, not really. Like, umm, I guess I know what you mean, but maybe it is better if you explain it to me?
Thalia: Yeah, that makes sense. Umm, see (shows her hand to me), I don’t look Greek. You need to look Greek to be Greek, like white, blue eyes, blonde. Well, not even that. You have to not look like me to be Greek…
This is one out of many excerpts of the conversations I have had with my knowledge-holders (i.e., my research informants, otherwise known as study participants) through the course of my research with Afrodiasporic youth in Greece. I could go on and share a couple more here, but they all would say the same thing, but perhaps in different words. And the idea would be
“You have to look Greek in order to be Greek!”
This, simply, means that if you want to play the part of being European and Greek, regardless of where you come from and where you were raise,d you have to be white!
Ethnocentricity And The Myth Of Homogeneous Greece:
Greece adheres to jus sanguinis (principle of original or the ‘blood principle) rather than jus soli (birthright) citizenship practices (Christopolos, 2013). Greek national identity is tied to the metaphors of religion, culture, and blood ties. What’s pivotal is a connection to Greek ancestry, even if the individual concerned does not speak the language.
This means that the children of migrants, even if born and raised in Greece, are not allowed Greek nationality. When they reach the age of 18, they are not considered protected family members and have to individually apply for residence. Without any residence permit, the youth is suddenly transferred to the category of ‘undocumented migrants’, which is technically invalid since most of them never made the journey to Greece themselves.
This way, they are suddenly thrown out of the exclusive Greek construction of nationhood and belonging. Simply put, even though the youth have spent considerable time, if not all, in Greece, they are forced into a life on the margins. They are denied Greek nationality and treated as second-class foreigners in a country that they have called home and have known no place outside of it.
The real conundrum is that Greece has been a host country for an ethnically and religiously diverse population for more than two decades now. Regardless, it has closely followed the politics of invisibility in migration integration policies. There is a growing number of concerns raised about asylum determination violations, poor reception infrastructure, and detention conditions that violate international human rights and refugee law (Alpes et al., 2017; Human Rights Watch, 2009; Kretsos, 2013; Stribis, 2016; Trajanovska & Bozhinovski, 2013). T
Till about 2009, the ruling elites were reluctant to use integration and settlement as concepts associated with migrants. This resulted in widespread anti-immigrant sentiment that takes its root in the country’s rich history of unswerving ethnocultural understanding of national identity, as explained above. The decades’ worth of laws glorifying xenophobic and racist logic have normalized migrant hatred. The difference and diversity are seen as a danger to the cultural homogenization and ethnocentrism powering the state (Comas-d’Argemir, 1992). As per it, the migrant children might be able to acquire the civic elements associated with Greekness but not the ethnic ones, and thus, do not deserve to be called Greek.
Belonging During the Times of Precarity
This exclusionary citizenship politics is one of the reasons why immigrant youth are consistently bullied in public spaces and online. For them, belonging is a fluid concept that does not take a solid, stationary form. Belonging becomes an ideal they are unable to achieve as long as they live in a society that deems them as less than.
In educational institutions, the curriculum adds to it as well. The books and projects undertaken in schools spread the idea that most of the countries in Africa are still decades-behind and often cite examples of deep poverty, famine, and water shortage to back the claims. The knowledge-holders often bring these examples as the main reason why the fellows make fun of them, bully them, or label them with names. However, the reality is far from true.
There is enough research and evidence that has debunked the myth of underdeveloped, backwards, inhuman, and stereotypical Africa (see, for example, Faloyin, 2022; Keim & Somerville, 2018, 2021; Mutwiri, 2003). The youth themselves claim to have visited or seen pictures of their countries of origin, where they saw waterfalls, schools, universities, and other places that are rather considered antiquated and down-trodden in the Greek curriculum. This speaks to the legitimization of structural racism in a world where information is accessible at the tip of a finger, and yet the Greek state authorities fail to consider it.
The invalidation of valid knowledge of the African continent has led to precarity for those who racially belong to it. The extensive stereotyping and dehumanization have now led to new and advanced forms of racialization spreading both in the physical and online realm. Which brings us to where we started from?
“You have to look Greek in order to be Greek!”
References
Faloyin, D. (2022). Africa Is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa. Random House.
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