Table Of ContentMigration, Minorities and Citizenship
General Editors: Zig Layton-Henry, Professor of Politics, University of
Warwick; and Daniele JoIy, Professor, Director, Centre for Research in
Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick
Titles include:
Muhammad Anwar, Patrick Roach and Ranjit Sondhi (editors)
FROM LEGISLATION TO INTEGRATION?
Race Relations in Britain
James A. Beckford, Daniele Joly and Farhad Khosrokhavar
MUSLIMS IN PRISON
Challenge and Change in Britain and France
Christophe Bertossi (editor)
EUROPEAN ANTI-DISCRIMINATION AND THE POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP
Britain and France
Thomas Faist and Andreas Ette (editors)
THE EUROPEANIZATION OF NATIONAL POLICIES AND POLITICS OF
IMMIGRATION
Between Autonomy and the European Union
Thomas Faist and Peter Kivisto (editors)
DUAL CITIZENSHIP IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
From Unitary to Multiple Citizenship
Adrian Favell
PHILOSOPHIES OF INTEGRATION
Immigration and the Idea of Citizenship in France and Britain
Agata Gorny and Paulo Ruspini (editors)
MIGRATION IN THE NEW EUROPE
East-West Revisited
James Hampshire
CITIZENSHIP AND BELONGING
Immigration and the Politics of Democratic Governance in Postwar Britain
John R. Hinnells (editor)
RELIGIOUS RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORAS
From One Generation to Another
Daniele Joly
GLOBAL CHANGES IN ASYLUM REGIMES (editor)
Closing Doors
Zig Layton-Henry and Czarina Wi/pert (editors)
CHALLENGING RACISM IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY
J0fgen S. Nielsen
TOWARDS A EUROPEAN ISLAM
Pontus Odmalm
MIGRATION POLICIES AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Inclusion or Intrusion in Western Europe
Aspasia Papadopoulou-Kourkoula
TRANSIT MIGRATION
The Missing Link Between Emigration and Settlement
Jan Rath (editor)
IMMIGRANT BUSINESSES
The Economic, Political and Social Environment
Carl-Ulrik Schierup (editor)
SCRAMBLE FOR THE BALKANS
Nationalism, Globalism and the Political Economy of Reconstruction
Maarten Vink
LIMITS OF EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP
European Integration and Domestic Immigration Policies
Osten Wahlbeck
KURDISH DIASPORAS
A Comparative Study of Kurdish Refugee Communities
Migration, Minorities and Citizenship
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Transit Migration
The Missing Link between Emigration and
Settlement
Aspasia Papadopoulou-Kourkoula
palgrave
macmillan
* © Aspasia Papadopoulou-Kourkoula 2008
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008978-0-230-55533-4
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library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Papadopoulou-Kourkoula, Aspasia, 1976-
Transit migration: the missing link between emigration and
settlement I Aspasia Papadopoulou-Kourkoula.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-349-36415-2 (alk. paper)
1. Emigration and immigration-Social aspects. 2. Immigrants-Social
conditions. 3. Europe-Emigration and immigration-Social aspects.
4. Immigrants-Europe-Social conditions. I. Title.
JV6225.P372008
304.8-<1c22 2008020653
Transferred to Digital Printing 2012
To Constantin
Contents
Preface ix
List ofA bbreviations xii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Transit 3
1.2 Focus and methodological considerations 8
1.3 Plan of the book 10
2 Migration in Europe 15
2.1 European migration and asylum policy 15
2.2 The external dimension of EU migration and asylum 30
policy
3 Transit in Europe: The Case of Greece 46
3.1 Greece: destination and transit 47
3.2 A tale of refugee camps 60
4 Being in Transit 69
4.1 The journey and the smuggling business 71
4.2 What is it like being in transit? 81
5 Transit in the Maghreb: Sub-Saharans and el-harga 91
5.1 Migration trends and policies in North Africa 91
5.2 Transit in Morocco 109
6 Transit in the East: Shifting Borders 116
6.1 Mobility patterns in the East in the 1990s 116
6.2 The new migrations of the East 123
7 Conclusion 141
Notes 150
Bibliography 158
Index 168
vii
Preface
Scene 1: Penteli refugee camp, Athens, winter 2002
We are sitting together with Nermin in her room and she is telling
me about the job she used to have, a teacher in a primary school in
Suleimaniya. Sipping the tea she made for me, I hear about how
much she likes teaching and children. She wants to work again, she
has missed it. She also wants to have children she says, it's been two
years since they got married but with all this moving around and the
constant uncertainty it was just not possible. They arrived here about
one year ago and they have been living in this room ever since. The
room looks as if they arrived yesterday. Clothes piled up on a chair,
a few belongings here and there and that's all. I am asking whether
they are leaving soon. Who knows, she says, it depends, in the end
they may stay in Greece as well. 'We just want to have a normal life
soon, just like you have', she says as she sees me to the door.
Scene 2: UNHCR Rabat Office, Morocco, spring 2006
The taxi drops me off at the UNHCR office. A crowd of over 30 people,
all Africans, is gathered at the gate and there seems to be a furore. Some
are waving a note they hold in their hands, they have come for the
interview. A woman is holding her baby in front of her and argues
with someone. She needs to take the baby to the doctor she says, and
she cannot afford it. A young man, clutching his mobile in one hand,
seems to have a leading role, he is discussing with the guards, while
four or five others are standing in a circle around him. Some others are
waiting further back, gathered under a tree. They have come to regis
ter. The guard is calling the name of someone that has an interview,
but nobody seems to respond. As I approach the gate, I hear someone
saying that this person has left. For Spain, he explains. Last time they
saw him was two weeks ago. No news since.
This book was written in two phases. The first phase was in the years
2000-4, when I was reading for a PhD degree at Oxford University.
I picked the case of Kurdish asylum seekers in Greece to research and
embarked on a search to explain how reception policies affect the
course of refugee movements. After a couple of interviews and visits,
I realized that the reasons that affected the course of movement of the
ix
