Contested Refugeeness in the Lavrio Kurdish Camp After the 2015 Reception Crisis in Greece

ABSTRACT This article explores the meanings of refugeeness among Kurdish residents of the self‐managed Lavrio refugee camp in Greece in the aftermath of the 2015 reception crisis. Focusing on how Kurdish camp residents make sense of their political identities and on how they distinguish themselves from those they call ‘non‐political refugees’, the article (a) shows how the 2015 reception crisis triggered a broader ideological shift from a ‘refugee’ to a ‘migrant’ crisis, producing the figure of the undeserving migrant; and (b) argues that Kurdish camp residents reclaim their refugeeness as a permanent political condition rooted in collective memory and the Cold War archetype of the persecuted political refugee. Doing so, they mobilize refugeeness as a political resource to distinguish themselves from the depoliticized ‘2015 refugee’, secure the legitimacy of their presence and assert their right to remain amid the threat of eviction from the Lavrio camp.