49
Many of the settled undocumented migrants I met had lived at one address, one
location, for extended periods of time - in one case for over ten years. Yet, despite
considering these places their home, every one of my contacts told me they were
prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. This hints at a complex relationship between the
individual and space, one in which the individual is suspended in a state Ofliminality,
unable to reterritorialize, or become part or a new code-territory46, after having
deterritorialized (Deleuze & Guattari 2003 [1987]), or disengaged (socially and
psychologically), from their place of origin - the latter a process necessary in the
reconciliation of the internal conflict described above. For these individuals, Athens is
made up of hiding places, opportunities, and danger-zones. They navigate the city based
on a vision of modem∕cosmopolitan personhood or citizenship defined by a particular
experience of repression and violence: the product of the clash between local histories,
international migratory flows, and a deeply territorialized state. In practical terms this
means understanding and blending in with local society as stereotypes, leaving no
financial footprint, avoiding state agents, remaining alert to quick economic opportunities,
and not putting down roots or investing in either place or local people. Tracing the
movements of established undocumented migrants around Athens is like mapping
invisibility onto space: an exercise in chasing ghosts47. Perhaps one must employ a new
kind of map, like the one Deleuze and Guattari describe of a rhizome: “always detachable,
connectable, reversible, modifiable, and has multiple entryways and exits” (2003
[1987]:21). Fixed place cannot be the referent for a study of undocumented migrant
motion. These individuals move just like Octavio Paz’s description of the relationship
46 Deleuze and Guattari describe the relation between a specific social and moral order and the space it is
inscribed into and that is defined by it a “code-territory” (2003 [1987]).
47 For mapping and поп-typical citizenship see Le Marcis (2004).