495129 2013 EUC10610.1177/1477370813495129European Journal of CriminologyCheliotis Special section article Behind the veil of philoxenia: The politics of immigration detention in Greece European Journal of Criminology 10(6) 725­–745 © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1477370813495129 euc.sagepub.com Leonidas K Cheliotis University of Edinburgh, UK Abstract This article sets out to summarise the policies, practices and experiences of immigration detention in contemporary Greece, as well as outlining how they have been critiqued domestically and internationally. The article proceeds to address the ways in which the Greek state has reacted to criticisms and pressures for reform, especially from abroad. It is argued that neither domestic nor international interventions have succeeded in bringing about substantive progressive change in the Greek immigration detention system. Rather, Greek state authorities have systematically neutralised criticisms by employing an array of rhetorical techniques, most notably through evocation of philoxenia (broadly meaning hospitality to foreigners and strangers more generally) as a natural trait common to all Greeks. In addition to highlighting the dubious and paradoxical dimensions of the rhetorical defences deployed by the state in Greece, particularly concerning its discourse of philoxenia, the article goes on to discuss the main socio-political functions that have subtly been served inside the country’s borders through maintenance of deplorable policies and practices of immigration detention, including the symbolic management of public anxieties in accordance with what may be termed the ‘more eligibility’ principle. In pointing to these functions, the article helps to explain why the Greek state persists in making use of rhetoric that is blatantly indefensible and bound to attract further disapprobation. Keywords Irregular migration, immigration detention, Greece, state responses to criticism, philoxenia, ‘more eligibility’ principle Despite variation in the ways in which so-called ‘host’ countries in Europe have responded to migration flows over recent decades, there is no doubt that immigration is a hot political issue across the continent, both within individual nation-states and at Corresponding author: Leonidas K Cheliotis, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, 15 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9JS, UK. Email: l.cheliotis@ed.ac.uk Downloaded from euc.sagepub.com at Oxford University Libraries on November 25, 2013