Levels of segregation, lines of closure: The spatiality of immigrants’ social exclusion in Athens

This paper is about ethnic residential segregation and its relationship with social exclusion in the metropolitan region of Athens. Both exclusion and segregation may be either unplanned outcomes of market processes or intended products of specific policies. Drawing on work presented elsewhere and census data, I argue that the spatial pattern of immigrants’ social exclusion in Athens is not so much about different socio-ethnic groups residing apart from each other, but to a larger extent about people of different ethnic background and living conditions living in close proximity. Looking at the treatment of specific immigrant groups by state authorities, one discovers policies of purposed spatial isolation in marginal environments of closure, where ethnic difference is transformed to severe exclusion.