Migrants’ Experiences In Thessaloniki, Greece: Exploring Diverse Stories

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the experiences of migrants in Greece, particularly in accessing services and rights, including a diverse group of persons with varied lengths of residence in the country and different legal statuses. To do so, the thesis uses a methodological approach grounded in qualitative interviews and inspired by the contributions of ethnographic research. It aims to contribute at a better understanding of migrants’ experiences in Greece, focusing on their narratives on language interactions, social protection and interactions with street-level bureaucrats as privileged entry points to understand broader migration experiences, including the place of agency and of social structural constraints in shaping these experiences. It conceptualizes migration as a social process intrinsically indissociable from other social processes, and is in line with perspectives that bring migration agency to the forefront in the hopes of achieving a more nuanced and complex image of migration processes, while considering how this unfolds amidst important social and structural constraints. Migrants’ narratives show many obstacles in the access to services and rights in Greece, but also allow us to highlight opportunities for improving and overcoming existing gaps, showcasing the importance of hearing migrants’ perspectives when developing solutions for the obstacles they face.