Cite as: Zsófia, N., 2018, "From Camps to Schools: The Participation of Refugee Children in Greek Public Education." Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 36 (2): 373-399.
Abstract
Based on an ethnographic fieldwork in Greece, this study focuses on the government’s attempt to provide education for children living in Athens’s refugee camps, as well as the actors involved in this effort, interrogating the problematic phenomena and interconnectedness of crisis, hospitality, and solidarity. During the past decade, Greece has become the center of international attention in connection with the two crises that are both also local variations of wider global problems. First, being hit hard by the financial crisis and subsequent austerity measures, present-day Greece can be taken as a case of a country in chronicity, where crisis has become normalized. Second, as a consequence of interrelated international phenomena, Greece witnessed an increase in immigration, and the EU-Turkey deal of 2016 created a bottlenecked country, where presently about 65,000 refugees wait in so-called frozen transience. The issue of refugee education is investigated in this context. This article argues that refugee education cannot be understood solely on economic or political terms but needs to be situated into a broader cultural context, as well.