The name is absent

40

different day when a short man emerged from the depths behind the teller’s windows and
motioned for me to join him. Needless to say I was surprised, but since this was probably
my only chance to speak to an official I did as instructed. A few minutes later I found
myself sitting in a comfortable office away from the noise. Vassili, as he introduced
himself, seemed to occupy a position of authority within the department (although I was
never able to verify his title) and apologized for the disarray I witnessed explaining that,
“the Albanians and Middle Easterners are noisy, less civilized people.” After checking
my Canadian passport he explained that I stood out among the crowd and he wanted to
help me. The injustice of the situation had not yet hit me so I proceeded, gratefully, to
ask about permanent resident status for Jigo. Vassili was fascinated that a foreigner of
Greek descent was interested in the plight an undocumented African migrant, but was not
inclined to help. However, once he discovered I was a student at a prestigious American
university, and conducting research, he once again became very forthcoming and helpful.
He advised me that Jigo occupied a category of citizen the state was reluctant to change:
keeping undocumented migrants in limbo gave the government options. I was told that
the government might eventually hold an “amnesty day” like it had some years ago in
1998 when 370,000 undocumented migrants managed to acquire residence permits, and
later in 2001 when 350,000 more did the same³⁷; although Vassili thought that was
unlikely considering the state had given citizenship to thousands of ethnic Albanians of
Greek descent only a few months back in November (2006). Moreover, he explained that
government agencies were in no position to handle the increased workflow of an amnesty
day because offices like his were not computerized meaning applicants would have to be
processed manually into a non-integrated system. He also suggested that a degree of
ɔ⁷ These figures were reported by the Greek Interior Ministry.

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