Materials matter! Preliminary Research Findings on Return Migration Infrastructures in Greece.
Figure 1: The IOM bag. Source: G. Kandylis, GAPs fieldwork in Greece, 2023.
by: George Kandylis, Eva Papatzani, Panos Hatziprokopiou, | National Centre for Social Research, EKKE
In early September 2023, the research team of the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) started fieldwork in Greece within the scope of the GAPs project (entitled “De-centring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond”), particularly focusing on Return Migration Infrastructures (RMIs). Research on RMIs aims to bring to the fore how return migration governance is put into practice, by focusing on: a) the actors involved in the operation of returns, their relationships and networks, b) their everyday practices and the different steps constituting the return process, and c) the materials and technologies that shape (either facilitate or undermine) the ways in which returns take place on the ground.
The concept of migration infrastructures provides the missing meso-level in migration studies, or more precisely, the link between global structures that explain migration, and micro-models that focus on the decision-making of migrants themselves. The infrastructural turn has been driven by the perspective that migratory movements are constantly mediated by a wide variety of actors, some of whom facilitate while others control and even impede them[1]. Infrastructures are defined as the systematically interlinked technologies, institutions, actors – and their interconnections – that facilitate and condition mobility. These include both human and non-human elements, such as the biometric systems that have become an integral part of border controls to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate travelers; or a range of other mundane objects, such as papers, application forms, etc. The concept of migration infrastructures allows research perspectives to shift away from the people who move towards those human and non-human actors and elements that move migrants within specific infrastructural frameworks.
Inspired by this approach, GAPs research on RMIs aims to unravel the complex web of human and non-human actors and elements, their relationships, their everyday or exceptional practices, and – crucially – the material and technological tools that are being used as well as their functions, in order to explore how assisted return, forced removal or pushbacks become tangible. In this respect, research in Greece began primarily by selecting the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) program, run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as the particular type of RMI on which the fieldwork would focus. The existence and operation of the Open Centre for migrants registered for Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (OCAVRR), where beneficiaries are provided temporary accommodation in Athens, was of particular interest and, thus, provided a crucial “entry point” from which the fieldwork and qualitative interviews unfolded.
The first preliminary contacts with IOM brought to the fore a range of different actors, roles, responsibilities, relationships, practices, and steps in the AVRR program at both national and local levels. The research team gradually began to put together the interview sample, prioritizing according to expertise and diversity of voices and roles, and conducted a first set of semi-structured expert interviews. In an infrastructural perspective, these interviews constitute a tool to explore the relations and interactions between actors, materials, and technologies that together mediate the ways in which returns take place. In parallel, the preliminary visit to the IOM headquarters in Athens revealed the multiplicity – not only of the actors but also – of the materials involved in the implementation of AVRR. Beyond the importance of the OCAVRR (which the research team had initially assumed), several interrelated places, spaces, offices, buildings, and procedures that put AVRR into practice in Greece started to emerge. These include, among others, the IOM headquarters where a number of services are provided and where most procedures take place, and the Athens airport as another part of the material dimensions of the AVRR infrastructure. The EKKE team conducted ethnographic research through field visits and guided tours by IOM representatives in these three places and was given the opportunity to observe a particular case of departure of Georgian returnees.
At the same time, the materialities of return infrastructures may concern a wide range of other “things”, beyond buildings and places. These may include various objects, such as cameras, uniforms, papers, bags, suitcases, information leaflets, posters at bus stops, to name but a few. During field research in Greece so far, specific examples of certain material objects have emerged to show how RMIs are shaped on a mundane level. One of these is the IOM white plastic bag (Figure 1), which is given to migrants participating in the AVRR program prior to their departure and which they are instructed to carry with them when at the airport so that they can collect all the necessary documents and be identifiable by the staff. The same bag was already mentioned in our first interviews about the AVRR specific procedures and the research team was reminded that they could recognize the group of migrants at the airport by the bags they would be carrying. Indeed, it was the bag that enabled the researchers to recognize the returnees in the crowded airport environment during the ethnographic visit - at least since they were already aware of it. But at the same time, IOM bags are quite easily mistaken for the duty free bags that are a familiar sight in airports: what is so detectable for the trained eye is almost invisible to common passengers.
Is the bag that the returnees are obliged to carry an element of crowd control at the airport, a sign of the migrants’ status as returnees, a tool to distinguish them or a way to discreetly cover their identity? What other functions does it have and what can it reveal in the puzzle of other materials, objects, practices, actors and relations that make up the RMI of AVRR in Greece?
Taking materials seriously, particularly through the lens of migration infrastructures, can provide a valuable lens in migration research. Objects are everywhere and can inform field researchers in much richer ways than when research is limited to verbal communication with experts. Moreover, objects are diverse. Sometimes material objects in infrastructures are there from the beginning and researchers are prepared to address them in an interview. In other cases, they suddenly appear and one has to be prepared to benefit from such unexpected encounters. Sometimes material objects are very prominent and inviting, but more often they remain invisible, and we have to decide whether or not it may be productive to bring them into a discussion. The IOM bag, among other “things”, may unwrap much more than one might think at first, as the research continues.
[1] Xiang, B. & Lindquist, J. (2014) Migration infrastructure. International migration review 48: S122-S148.
Contact:
George Kandylis | Senior Research Fellow and Co-Principal Investigator, National Centre for Social Research, EKKE | gkandyli@ekke.gr
Eva Papatzani | Research Associate and Co-Principal Investigator, National Centre for Social Research, EKKE, | epapatzani@ekke.gr
Panos Hatziprokopiou | Associate Professor, School of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & National Centre for Social Research, EKKE | pmchatzi@plandevel.auth.gr