epistemological assumptions embedded within analysis methods, can deeply influence research processes and outcomes. Fieldwork in the community My initial PhD plan was to do a restudy of the research I had conducted in 2011, i.e., interviews with detained immigrants and officers, and more importantly fieldwork inside detention facilities, with a focus on resistance.26 Yet, as others have argued, my field emerged from the locations I was able to access and those I could not (Hasselberg, 2016). Unlike in 2011, when I was eased into the Greek detention estate, this time was different. My ethics application at Lancaster was reviewed and approved quickly, which allowed me to begin my empirical research nearly six months after I started. I emailed the Greek police with all the supporting material requesting to do fieldwork inside detention centres, including interviews with detained people and staff. I did not even receive a reply. I tried to peruse further into this through telephone calls but each person I spoke to directed me to someone else. In analysing her access to migration governance sites in Greece, Rozakou (2019, p. 69) claims that reflections upon research access reveals ‘the ways in which sovereign power unfolds in its encounters with researchers who attempt to gain insight to the workings of oppressive and obscure migration regimes.’ In other words, our encounters with key stakeholders when ‘trying to get in’ (Rozakou, 2019), should be part and parcel of our analysis of state institutions. In this case, the denial of access to closed detention centres comes after a period, during which sites like open reception centres, camps and shelters were over-researched. The humanitarian crisis of 2015 transformed Greece and especially its borders into a topical and popular research field. In particular, Lesvos Island and the Moria camp became a ‘hotspot’ both as a new EU site of migration governance and as a hot research topic (Rozakou, 2019), as well as fed the media with many headlines that outlined the inhumanity of the camp. Under this context, I interpret this failed attempt, first, as a result of the research fatigue the authorities may have been experiencing. More importantly, this is another form of what the thesis describes as techniques through which immigration detention is insulated from outside threats. Rozakou (2019, p. 79) adds another angle to this by arguing that the visitor-researcher may not only be seen as a threat I have been interested in the concept of resistance for a number of years and have written about it (see Fili, 2013). 26 55