Exclusionary Citizenship: A Reading from the ‘Athens Syndrome’

As it is well known, the demographic phenomenon of migrations is not a new milestone in humanity's history. In fact, human displacement –due to voluntary or forced causes, within a state or among different nations– has characterized our species from the first gatherers and hunters. However, during the last years, the importance of migrations and the political reactions to it, have acquired a new relevance in the international and national sphere. On the one side, it affects the policy of regulation of migrant flows and, consequently, to the conception of borders; on the other side, it influences the social contract of coexistence, its foundations, and how it is managed –mainly– in terms of the degree of access to/inclusiveness of the system. This article aims to review, from the theoretical point of view, the main contributions made during the last years to the field of migrations and citizenship, also aiming to relate it to the concept of ‘Athens syndrome' (De Lucas), as a worthy nomenclature mainly used in the Spanish literature and very expressive of how the axis inclusiveness/exclusion works and how democratic hypocrisy articulates itself around it. The ‘Athens syndrome' points to the idea that, as it happened during the democratic regime established during the Ancient Greece, the democratic system usually coexist with the structural and interested exclusion of certain sectors of society. Thus, regarding the increasing numbers of migrants and displaced people into western countries, and also regarding the political reaction that it is provoking, it becomes imperative to examine how exclusion is articulated through the concept of citizenship and how it could be better understood if democratic inclusion was to be the system's goal.