Throughout these three chapters and into the concluding chapter, I explore various
points of connection between and among these populations and the dominant society. In
chapters two and three I show how undocumented migrants have come to influence
contemporary Greek political identities, effectively opening the possibility for
unconventional citizens to have an effect on popular perceptions and practices of modem
citizenship. In chapters four and five I detail one of the more subtle and one of the more
public interactions between various groups of undocumented migrants, both of which are
having a broader affect on dominant civic identities. I focus specifically on the
cooperation between the Roma and the undocumented migrant community in transporting
and selling various illegal or gray-market goods, and on the spontaneous coalescence of
anti-establishment youth, undocumented migrants, and the Roma during the December
2008 civil unrest in Athens3.
I conclude the dissertation by arguing that increasingly critical citizens are turning
away from state-sanctioned discourses descriptive∕prescriptive of a nation-centered
citizenship and, crucially, are beginning to reconsider popular understandings of modem
civic identity and democratic engagement relative to the multiple influences
unconventional citizens are having on public and private spaces. The dissertation ends
with a discussion of some of the broader theoretical implications of this work and its
relevance to the study of sociopolitical change in Europe.
3 Other points of contact which I refer to, but do not explore at length include the anarchist support for
migrant rights, partnerships between Roma and their various non-Roma contacts (including at open-air
markets), etc. These points of contact, or the social, economic, and political implications of these various
points of contact, also influence the experiences, narratives, and perspectives that inform political identity
negotiation among the dominant society.