ABSTRACT
The phrase in the title of this article is a synopsis of the situation of contemporary asylum migration in Greece. This is what a sit-in group of 150 Kurds were protesting for in front of the port authorities of Patras in January 2002. 1 At first glance, this claim contains a paradox: how is it possible that migrants apply for asylum and want to leave the country? It is this paradox that I will explain in this essay, aiming to show how asylum migration interacts with the social, political and reception structures in the country of first asylum. Migrants' decision to stay or leave the country depends on the opportunities that those structures give for accommodation and integration, but also on the degree of migrants' engagement in transnational social and family ties, and the role of diaspora politics in the migration process.
