55
permanent resident status - a “second stage” Iiminality giving them legal permission to
reside in the country albeit in a state of political disempowerment.
However, a broad constellation of non-governmental and non-profit organizations
work to alleviate the migrant community’s otherwise unaddressed human needs, to
develop their economic and social potential, and advocate for their rights including:
various cultural and sports associations, women’s associations, trade unions, other
professional organizations, human rights NGOs, or NGOs active in the protection of
refugee and asylum seeker rights. To this list we can also add several informal advocacy
groups as Sotiropoulos would put it (2004), but also several unexpected, perhaps non-
traditional advocacy groups including at least two collectives of young people that have
formed patronage relationships with members of the migrant community and various
anarchist organizations that appeal to the community’s history and experience (as we will
see in chapter 3). These groups have created a rich, active, and increasingly vocal civil
society55; albeit one that has an unconventional relationship with its stakeholders. While
some migrants are active within these groups, the vast majority remain effectively
disengaged. This does not mean that they do not participate in demonstrations or
appreciate positive propaganda and legal help, but more destitute migrants are absorbed
and limited by the bitter throws of basic survival while those in comparatively more
comfortable conditions are hesitant to seek aid outside of their trusted networks.
Small group outreach programming is the only method by which activists have
been able to create enduring working links with new and situated migrant networks as
this strategy is highly compatible with the internal sociality of the larger migrant
55 Beck argues that a European civil society arises only when religiously, racially, and/or ideologically
opposed populations struggle over the political reality of Europe, and this is certainly the case in Greece
(Beck 2006:167).