The European refugee crisis in Greece: understanding host communities

Thesis

This thesis explains how Greeks, despite having consistently revealed high levels of xenophobic sentiments in cross-European surveys, behaved in a prosocial manner towards asylum seekers in the context of the European refugee crisis. It draws on data collected over six months of ethnographic fieldwork in Greece and is composed of three independent, yet interrelated, papers, each of which examines a unique research question and simultaneously contributes to addressing this overarching empirical puzzle. Specifically, the first paper examines whether self-reported prejudice is a good predictor for actual discrimination in this context of crisis. It argues that cases of discordance emerge from the fact that this construct does not capture the affective dimension of relevant attitudes; emotional dynamics emerging from interpersonal interaction seem to have played an important role in guiding action in the case considered. Exploring the triggers of prosocial behavior, the second paper uncovers the central role of situational dynamics in leading ingroup members to offer help to asylum seekers. The ability to discern individuals, rather than groups, as well as the degree of emergency asylum seekers faced in the course of intergroup contact determined the actions of host community members. To a large extent, this explains why Greeks became so immersed into helping asylum seekers. This contradicts an explanation that is highly articulated within the public discourse, namely that this behavior was a result of the refugee heritage of host community members. The third paper conceptualizes the latter explanation as a perspective- taking intervention that ultimately underlined the shared identity of Greeks with contemporary asylum seekers and identifies the ways in which this resonated with host community members. Based on the emerged typology suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of such interventions are introduced. Overall, this thesis makes a number of contributions to ethnic relations literature.

Authors: Charitopoulou, E

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-vj90gxgog
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: discrimination; Greece; prejudice; European refugee crisis