Abstract
This article examines the subjectivity of refugee women regarding education while in a state of prolonged “transit” in squalid conditions and within a context of limited agency. Specifically, we discuss the experience of forced migration and displacement of refugee Afghan women through a focus on processes of education in the context of their “temporary” accommodation in the former Elliniko camp in Athens. Through ethnographic fieldwork in the framework of Project PRESS, which was funded by the Hellenic Open University, the study presents how gender in the context of encampment and mobility affects the refugees’ participation in non-formal educational programs.
The article proposes that for groups of individuals who have been “refugees” for long periods of their lives or were born “refugees,” informal or non-formal educational activities may become a vehicle of mobility in the transit condition. Through such activities, gendered claims can be made and intergenerational and other hierarchical relationships within the family and community can be renegotiated, as in the case of young women in the former Elliniko Camp.
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Notes
According to estimates, more than 800,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece reaching the Greek shores. See, https://www.iom.int/news/irregular-migrant-refugee-arrivals-europe-top-one-million-2015-iom
Recent estimates by the UNHCR place the number of refugees in Greece as of August 2017 at 44,043. See https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/60119
Such as NGOs and INGOs, intragovernmental organizations and international bodies, local authorities and volunteers.
Scientific Committee for the Support of Refugee Children (Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs), Το έργο της εκπαίδευσης των προσφύγων [The Project of the Education of Refugees], April 2017.
See also https://data2.unhcr.org/fr/documents/download/52494
ibid.
Project PRESS (an acronym for the Provision of Refugee Education and Support Scheme) was a research-based project that aimed at producing actions geared towards the refugees’ educational support and their long-term educational empowerment. Specifically, by bringing together epistemological components and researchers from two distinct disciplines, social anthropology and sociolinguistics, the project aimed at producing ethnographic insights into the educational, linguistic and communication priorities and expectations of refugee children, youths and adults currently residing in Greece in order to furnish educational activities and integration interventions. The project was structured around three main axes: The first axis (axis 1) entailed primarily qualitative, ethnographically based research and the production of ethnographic material that came together after an 8-month fieldwork in refugee camps and residencies as well as in sites of educational interest, such as in-site/off-site non-formal classes, language courses and informal educational activities in three different geographical areas in Greece (Lesvos, Attica, and Thessaloniki). The research findings informed the second and third axes of the project (axes 2 and 3). Specifically, axis 2 targeted the linguistic and cultural integration and adjustment of refugee children, youths and adults through non-formal and informal learning interventions and axis 3 focused on awareness-raising, provision of support services and distance learning interventions for the long-term educational empowerment of refugees in Greek society. The duration of the project, which consisted of 24 distinct actions, was 19 months (June 2016 to December 2017). The Academic Director of the project was Professor George Androulakis and the Project Coordinators were Anna Apostolidou, Ivi Daskalaki and Sofia Tsioli. For more information, see http://press-project.eap.gr/toolkit/.
Fieldwork was conducted by a research team consisting of nine members, six field researchers, three social anthropologists and three sociolinguists who worked in pairs in each geographical site, along with three research assistants under the supervision of the three project coordinators.
For an anthropological discussion on the dominant Greek discourse on filoxenia and the concomitant production of the powerful notions of refugees as “guests” and humanitarian agents as “hosts,” see also Daskalaki and Leivaditi (2018), Rozakou (2018), Papataxiarchis (2014, 2006), Cabot (2016) and Pallister-Wilkins (2018).
Paradoxically, both in official and unofficial discourse, educational provisions are seen as an empowering “gift” by hosting agents towards the refugees, while simultaneously the refugees’ participation in educational processes constitutes an anticipated-by-the-hosts means of reciprocation for the very same “gift.” These anticipated expectations for the refugees’ engagements in education reproduced in the discourse of humanitarian agents are often linked with provisions of accommodation.
See, for example, the relevant discussion about camps as sites of the management of the “undesirables” (Agier 2010) and about “the campization of refugee accommodation” (Kreichauf 2018). With specific reference to Greece, see Kandylis (2019) who views the organization of refugee accommodation as a mechanism of displacement, through the provision of spatially isolated and socially marginal living spaces.
For a detailed account on an example of how Muslim women increase their rights and opportunities under difficult circumstances, see Paidar (1997).
Also spelled Hellenicon or Ellinikon (in Greek Ελληνικόν).
Elliniko I (Hockey), Elliniko II (West / Olympic Arrivals) and Elliniko III (Baseball Stadium). For more information on the Elliniko refugee camp, see https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/53941
1,400 in the Olympic hockey stadium (Elliniko I), 1,300 in the baseball stadium (Elliniko III), and 1,300 in the old airport (Elliniko II). See, http://www.amnesty.eu/content/assets/Docs_2016/ReportsBriefings/Trapped_in_Greece_final_140416.pdf
According to Amnesty International, 31 temporary accommodation sites were set up by the Greek government on mainland Greece to accommodate refugees and migrants in an irregular contingency. Five of them were located in Athens in Elliniko, Eleonas and Schisto. See, http://www.amnesty.eu/content/assets/Docs_2016/ReportsBriefings/Trapped_in_Greece_final_140416.pdf
Unaccompanied Minors (UAM), or Unaccompanied Children (UAC) or more recently as Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC) (Demeli 2011). According to Greek legislation, the definition for an unaccompanied minor is the following: “a third-country national or stateless person below the age of 18 who arrives in Greece unaccompanied (without the company of an adult responsible for him) for as long as he is not effectively being taken care of by such a person or a minor who is left unaccompanied after entering Greece” (Dimitrakopoulou and Papageorgiou 2008: 17).
See also Blitz et al. (2017: 16).
In austerity-stricken Greece, the state found itself in the awkward position of endorsing particular aspects of the education of refugees, predominately the offering and implementation of non-formal educational services, such as remedial education and recreational activities, to international organizations and NGOs. In this fluid context which tested the “limits” of a country already in deep socio-economic and political crisis (Papataxiarchis 2016b), the Greek Ministry of Education responded quickly and, in collaboration with other ministries and agents (the Deputy Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, international organizations, such as UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, local authorities, and NGOs), sought to set the regulatory framework for refugee children’s access and gradual integration in Greek schools, at an initial phase through the operation of reception classes established for primary and secondary education operating mainly during the evening (DYEP).
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Rezaian, A., Daskalaki, I. & Apostolidou, A. Gendered Spaces and Educational Expectations: the Case of the Former Refugee Camp “Elliniko” in Athens. Int. Migration & Integration 21, 155–170 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-019-00712-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-019-00712-w