Page 55 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

da to the suburbs of the major cities of Athens
and Thessaloniki. Their presence has also fuelled
several debates about the possible dangers they
pose to national identity, rekindling fears of Al-
banian irredentism or an existential threat to
uncertain national cohesion. Such concerns are
perceived at all levels, from the feeling of dis-
possession of the localities where Albanian mi-
grants have settled en masse, to the more global
vision of a massive and worrying presence in the
whole country. These debates, and the various
fantasies about their (inevitably) huge numbers,
are fuelled by the irregular nature of migration 55
in the early years, since the first mass regulariza-
ti tion campaigns only began in 1997. Subsequent-
ly, part of this flow remained irregular because
of the slowness of the Greek administration,
ta latory mobility (Sintès 2010), but also because
which was poorly adapted to this type of circu-

of the massive need for irregular workers to sus-
tain Greek growth in the decades that followed.
di These illegal migrants often cross the border on Figure 6: Kotsikas: ruins of ancient Muslim village tales from the greek-albanian borderland ...
foot, risking their lives (mountain borders are in-
creasingly guarded). This is why, due to its easy
in northern Thesprotia (source: Sintès (2010))
topography, the coastal section of the border in
the Thesprotia region has been particularly af- gether in a political party, the PDIU (Party for
here were in the front line in receiving migrants who anca Kuq e Zi (Red and Black Alliance), found-
Justice, Integration and Unity), founded in 2011,
fected by illegal crossings by Albanian migrants
whose ideas are now also defended by the Ale-
since 1990. At that time, the villages of Kalama
ed in 2012, which is calling (among other things)
went to the bus station at Igoumenitsa to con-
for a referendum on the union of Kosovo with
tinue their journey to other towns in Greece, or
Albania, and campaigning for an ethnic Albania
who stayed in the region for a while to take up
daily agricultural jobs.
Every 27 June, the anniversary of the commemo-
Another important factor in understand-
studiauniversitatis
ration of the “Cham genocide”, as recognized by
ing the situation of this region is that new geo- that would extend “from Pristina to Preveza”.
political concerns also arose in the early 2010s. the Albanian government, they take the oppor-
After several decades in Albania, the descend- tunity to demonstrate in Tirana and the towns
ants of the Chams are now making their voic- of southern Albania to reiterate their vision of
es heard. For several years, the fate of the region’s this page in Greek-Albanian history. Since 2011,
Muslims had been perceived in Albania as an in- there has even been a march near the Greek bor-
justice that had a lasting effect on relations with der and the Mavromati border crossing. In such
Greece. According to some, the violence of the a context, it is easy to imagine the fear of seeing
1940s even tore a piece of “Albanian land” from a new Albanian/Albanian-speaking presence
the country, and today more and more activists emerge in the border region for the Greek au-
are demanding that Albania return Chameria to thorities, given the high level of political activity
the national territory. They have even come to- concerning this issue in Albania. These various