ABSTRACT
This chapter documents how two specific social groups, asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants in Greece, experience the city of Athens as a temporary space of inhabitation. The chapter does not attempt to draw conclusions about the overall mode of inhabitation in Athens. Rather, it aims to understand what habitation en route means for the displaced populations in the city. Most new arrivals prefer Athens as their destination because public services and humanitarian organizations are housed in the capital and because they hope to find job opportunities there. Diasporas, or networks of displaced populations, are scattered around the world. It describes two types of experiences typical of displaced individuals arriving in Athens: first applies to legal asylum-seekers housed at the various camps or hostels organized by national or transnational organizations, usually located at the periphery of the city; second is that of independent, self-organized undocumented immigrants in inner-city Athens waiting for asylum or a residence permit, often on an illegal basis.
