Hospitality and Immigration in a Greek Urban Neighborhood: An Ethnography of Mimesis

This article uses the concept of hospitality to examine the relations between native‐born Greeks and recently arrived immigrants in a Greek urban neighborhood. Beyond romanticized notions of hospitality as a moral obligation or national virtue, this article considers hospitality as a power relation and a control mechanism of social behavior and cultural production. Although relations between hosts and guests are interpersonal, their (perceived) statuses are often enmeshed in macro hierarchical structures. The concept of hospitality helps us to shift scales and examine host‐guest relations at the micro‐level of a neighborhood in relation to wider political and economic constellations. However, the scalar dimensions of hospitality have limitations. This ethnographic study shows that ethnic Greek ‘repatriates’ from the former Soviet Union, despite their ideological incorporation in the home of the Greek nation, are treated by native‐born Greeks, at the neighborhood level, as guests who must comply with the rules of hospitality. At the same time, regardless of their legal exclusion and stigmatization in official discourses, Albanian immigrants, who have accepted the role of guests and imitate the socio‐cultural patterns of their native‐Greek neighbors, are received better than Greek ‘repatriates’.