Photo Katerina Rozakou, August 2021 I. Introduction 1. Immobilized on the way to the airport 1 A Friday in early 2016. I am supposed to be on my way to the Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport to attend one of the IOM AVR (Assisted Voluntary Return) operations. Instead, I am stuck ten kilometers from the departures terminal and I do not expect to make it to A1 (first entrance to Area A to non-Schengen destinations) by one o’clock. This is the firm appointment between the IOM staff and the returnees who are travelling on this day. As I sit immobilized in a 4 km traffic jam caused by the farmers' blocking of the motorway, I am listening on the radio about the demonstration outside the Greek parliament that is scheduled for the afternoon. The reporter informs the public that the protests concern the planned tax rises and pension reforms. Such reforms are part of the measures imposed by the most recent EU/IMF Economic Adjustment Program, one of the memoranda, as they are widely known, which have been imposed on Greek governments since 2010 when the country resorted to the IMF and the EU to deal with the debt crisis. The austerity of the last six years has led to the rapid impoverishment and violent decline of the middle classes, the growth of unemployment rates, changes in