Rituals of Subordination. A study on the performativity of rites of passage in migration.

Keywords: Rituals, Migration, Subaltern, Greece, Refugee Camps.
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

The present research consists of two case studies, both located in the borders of Greece: the decontamination structures built for the refugees that arrived in the port of Thessaloniki in 1922 and the modern, closed controlled access centre for refugees and migrants on the island of Samos.

Through these cases, the study attempts to investigate how the institutional context shapes the spaces where power is exercised over the bodies of refugees and migrants (disinfection centres, closed structures) through a series of performative practices (rituals of purification).

Moreover, the set of these institutional practices, that determine the arrival and settlement of refugees/migrants in the country, also determines how they are "distributed" in the system of production, constructing the kind of social and economic participation they will be able to exercise. Consequently, it is through these purifying rituals of entry that the social classification of subjects and the construction of a system that produces subordination to labour and power structures is ensured.

Finally, by analysing the entry and residence patterns of refugees and migrants, it is possible to observe the creation of a register for the lower type of work. In the case of 1922, the refugees constituted the critical mass for the formation of the working class in Greece. Similarly, the policies and practices applied in modern Greece (2022) lead to the creation of a new lower social class of subalterns in order to occupy the spaces of the host society.