Absence of a 'community' and spatial invisibility : migrants from Albania in Greece and the case of Thessaloniki

Abstract

The intention of this paper is to shed some light on the mode of organization of the Albanian immigration in Greece. Firstly we intend to maintain a hypothesis of a noncommunitarian organization of this particular migration. For this purpose we explore the Albanians’ social networks. Then, we make a second assumption: their diffusion. in the urban space as well as the absence of any ethnic infrastructure suggest a spatial invisibility of the Albanians in the Greek city. Exploring the example of Thessaloniki, the second largest Greek city after Athens, we will maintain that Albanians’ non-communitarian social insertion is reflected in the urban space: despite their large numbers in Thessaloniki, there is no evidence of any ethnicized district.