ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three main points that the brief sketch of changes in the status of foreigners in Athens has tried to make. First, it is not the first time there has been a sudden arrival of large numbers of people from elsewhere to city. However, it is the first time that people legally defined as refugees and migrants have arrived in large numbers. Second, one distinctive aspect of the migration in its most recent iteration is the way it is strongly tied to legal and technical changes made in relation to border management of the European Union region. Third, the overwhelming disproportion of what has been occurring in Athens is an important element of experiencing the process as a 'crisis'. It is not so much the idea of abnormality (though that is present); it is the enormity of the gap between the events as they are unfolding in people's lives and the capacity to deal with them.
