“Trapped” in a new future: Case of Athens, Greece : Social and spatial segregation of the municipality of Athens andpossible solutions

Abstract: The mass displacement of people is a global phenomenon, inherent in human nature and the needfor survival. Over the last 30 years, Greece became a destination country for differentpopulations. Although the last wave of displacement people, starting from 2015, found Greece inan unstable economic situation due to the economic crisis. Since 2015, Greece has been facingthe two types of crises: economic and refugee. The refugee crisis found Greece, like many otherEU countries, unprepared for the number of people that they received. As well, for Greece therefugee crisis can be viewed as a crisis of legitimacy and strategies.During the last five years, Greece made significant steps in the regulation of the refugeesituation, especially after the EU-Turkey agreement in March 2016, when Greece officiallybecame a country of destination from a transit country. However, the laws and ministerialdecisions instead of decreasing the residential segregation led to an increase of socialsegregation. This paradox can be observed in the case of the Athenian municipality.This paradox defined the starting point of this thesis and aimed for the investigation of spatialand social segregation in the center of Athens. To study this theme qualitative data werecollected for analysis, including, semi-structured interviews, analysis of official documents, andobservation.The funding of this thesis illustrates that Greece never lost its status as a transit country. And thatthe biggest challenge that Athenian municipality is facing is the integration of refugees in Greeksociety. The undeveloped integration section shows significant distancing between Greeks andrefugees.