The name is absent

42

because of document requirements and application fees, effectively shutting out
undocumented migrants.

In Vassili ’ s opinion, the state would never relinquish control over formal access
to citizenship in Greece and that “amnesty days” were held in response to political
pressures rather than a genuine desire to aid undocumented migrants. When asked why
the government favored this response to the growing undocumented migrant population,
Vassili explained that in his opinion Greece should not have to deal with the “remnants of
the world”, that undocumented migrants are useless citizens and should return to their
places of origin. By his account, the ones in the country had already maximized their
potential contribution and were nothing but a drain on resources and a source of
insecurity. In this case access to citizenship, or even permanent resident status
formalized by various papers and stamps provided in part by Vassili’s office, would give
the migrant∕foreigner access to what Herzfeld might term the nation’s “intimate space”
(2005). For Vassili, granting citizenship to Jigo and other actual or potential migrant
applicants contradicted his perception of the high status of the Greek identity which, as
he deployed the concept, indexed an ethnocentric nationalist sentiment with overtly racist
undertones. By his estimation, honorary “Greekness” could only be granted to non-
indigenous individuals worthy of Greek status (read: individuals of perceived Greek
heritage) and who through naturalization (πoλιτoγpαφηση)⁴¹ might adequately represent
and uphold the broader social, cultural, and historical elements that inform the Greek
identity and, by extension, the general nationalist) consciousness (see Anderson 1983).
The idea of Jigo with full citizenship was an affront to who Vassili perceived himself to
be, both as a citizen and as an individual, and to what he perceived the nation to mean,
⁴¹ On naturalization in Greece see Gourgouris (1996:33), see also Balibar & Wallerstein (1991:348-349).

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