27
relationship to it (in terms of a productive dialectic) would, to some extent, be shaped by
the larger collective: an informal, adaptive, growing, action-oriented group of
undocumented migrants. Modem communication technology also affects the housing
choices and even the spatial organization members of the collective employ within their
houses. When Jigo first arrived in Greece he spent the night in a small shack with one
friend. After meeting and asking the help of some other undocumented migrants who
were working on Mytilene he traveled to Athens by ferry with three other newcomers and
headed directly for Omonia Square, the center of Athens (Faubion 1993:38)27. He had no
further direction, but found a place to hide once he arrived. A few streets beyond
Omonia Square are a number of dilapidated buildings. The bones of their beautiful
neoclassical architecture are exposed in places where layers of paint have peeled away
and pieces of stone have crumbled. The decorative iron railings that adorn their
balconies and stairways stand bent in places, rusting and neglected. For one interested in
the city’s architectural past, these gorgeous homes stand like ghosts: their bold wooden
doors barred shut and broken windows boarded tight. To passers by, the only signs of
life associated with these places are the thick bushes that have overtaken the gardens and,
for the intrepid few that venture closer, the odor of human occupation seeping out
between window boards. Jigo lived in one of these homes for several months upon first
arriving in Athens. He and his friends were told a large bluish building had recently been
vacated, so they scouted it out and decided to move in (the weather was becoming very
cold). They discovered an entrance in the back of the home: someone had pried open the
door to the cellar and widened a hole in the floor where a toilet was once supported on
27 As Faubion notes, there is more than one “center” of Athens, depending on one’s perspective and
convictions. Omonia, however, is definitely the center for undocumented migrants.