The field of migration studies has mushroomed all over the world and has now
gained a certain academic autonomy. However, as the editors to this volume, Maria
Kousis, Aspasia Chatzidaki and Konstantinos Kafetsios insist that the study of
migration cannot be separated from the wider social, economic and political contexts
in which mobility takes place. For Greece, as for Europe at large, that context
can be summarised by the now ubiquitous word 'crisis' or, to be more exact, three
crises - the first arising from the ramifying effects of the 2008 financial crisis, the
second from the movement of migrants and refugees to Europe during 2015/2016,
and the third from the Covid-19 crisis, commencing in 2020. Greece was at the
vortex of the first two crises, though, thankfully, she has so far been relatively less
affected by the Covid crisis. So dispiriting was the period from 2008 onwards that,
on the surface, it was difficult to discern periods of normalcy between the crises.
Sotiris Laganopoulos, the Secretary of the Bodossaki Foundation, a Greek philanthropic
organisation active in supporting refugees and migrants, even suggested that
the foundation had to administer its programmes during a period of
'perma-crisis'.1
The great virtue of this pathbreaking and carefully curated collection of 15 studies
on mobilities in Greece during the three crises is that the authors probe the complex
reactions and interactions happening below the surface. In their introduction,
the editors commend the multi-disciplinary nature of the contributions. Of course
they are right, but even more impressive is that it is often difficult, without looking
at the authors' affiliations, to tell what the contributors' home disciplines are. As a
perceptive scholar, George Homans remarked long ago that this happens when 'the
problem is in control'.2 In short, when facing a complex issue and a fast-moving
reality, a scholar has to grab whatever insights and information are available, unfiltered
by prior loyalties and affiliations. The simultaneity of being hit by high rates
