Subculture of violence through the perspective of the

refugee crisis

The people in flight from the terror behind-strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and
some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

The word crisis goes back in the Ancient Greek history. Its meaning varies through the flow
of time, as it can be used in a context of law, in a religious context (Judgement Day in Greek
language is phrased as Day of Crisis), in the medical sciences, with the meaning
of the more dangerous point of an illness. But of course its also used as a historical change
benchmark, with a positive or a negative outcome. In the 18 th century modernity brought the
word crisis to the European political context. Crisis is the opposite of normality. Whats
normality? When every value and norm of social life works as it supposes to. And suddenly an
emergency comes to establish a crisis to that normality, destabilizing it. Europe is already
suffering under the weight of an economic crisis and the refugee crisis comes to sum up, with not
a visible solution to exist for neither of them. Is that creating a new point of view, in which crisis
is the new normality?
Violence. A feared word. Actually the public fear of violence may be greater than the amount
of violent behavior inside a community. The dominant, middle-class society morally denounces
violence, partly because of a general principle which characterizes every established political
power and the need to uphold nonviolence as a means of discouraging attacks against that power.
Thats why there is a thesis of a " subculture of violence" refers to a system of norms and values
set apart from the dominant nonviolent culture and which expect or require the use of violence in
many kinds of social relationships.
Hostility, psychological and physical aggression, anger, and rage are all terms that have been
associated with the meaning of violent responses to stimuli.
In Greece the violence comes as an outcome from both of the crisis, the economic and the
refugee ones, from both sides, the locals and the refugees as agents of violence. There is a
subculture of violence in both of those social groups, with a cause to be the interactions between
them.
The rise of political groups on the extreme right of the Establishment that call for violence in
their ideologies or have actually engaged in collective aggression are a common phenomenon in
Europe. And Greece, as the first arrival center of the flows of refugees could not be excluded.
The Golden Dawn is such an extreme right fascist group, with its supporters to rise through the
last years. But the problem is that people who dont support that group have also start to adopt

such ideologies, forced by the image of the refugee as potential danger for their jobs, their
religion, their culture. That leads to excessive use of verbal or physical violence towards the
refugees, or leads to forgiveness of the violence acts from the side of the institutional
representatives such the police, inside or outside the camps. Verbal violence towards the Mayor
of Lesvos island himself was shown by the locals of the Moria village, which is the closest in the
Moria Camp, so the first to react to the acts of violence and violations of the refugees toward
their properties.
But why there are forms of violence by the side of the refugees, in the welcoming country?
In order to try to understand the causes behind that I will give a brief explanation on the
structure of the social life inside the Moria camp, the one that all new arrivals go, in order to get
registered in the waiting list for their asylum interview. So every refugee spends some time there.
And most of them stay there for a good amount of time. For months. Already. Without knowing
what the future will be for them, what will happen to them, when their interview will take finally
place. With their rights about freedom of movement about working, about dreaming to go to a
different country in Europe being violated. If the external social environment is the area where
the causative key to aggression must be presently found, then the ignorance about the future and
the chaotic bureaucracy are two of the most important causes of the establishment of subculture
of violence inside the camps.
The subcultural normative system designates that in some types of social interaction a violent
and physically aggressive response is either expected or required by all members sharing in that
system values. Lets explore into the examples the Moria can give us. The month before the start
of the Ramadan the Moria camp had riots and excessive acts of violence of refuges toward other
nationality of refuges or toward the police very commonly. The Afghan put on fire the big Ramp
Hall where 150 Pakistan refuges where sheltered, as a form to show their power over their
territory inside the camp. Another case was the riot of the African nationalities toward the police,
accusing them of sexual gender based violence and racism. An important notice is that no NGO
worker was targeted at any situation.
The subcultural ethos of violence may be shared by all ages in a subsociety, but this ethos is
most prominent in a limited age group, ranging from late adolescence to middle age. That
reflects inside the camp, with the single men to be the main agents of violence along with the
unaccompanied minors. Both of them feel the rage that comes from the boredom of just sitting
somewhere restricted of movement and activities, contrary to their youth urge and their dreams.
It is not suggested that all persons in a particular ethnic, sex, or age group share in common
the use of potential threats of violence. But violence can become a part of the life style, the
theme for solving difficult problems. Thats why, when the unaccompanied minors putted on a
fire inside their restriction area had as result the answer to their request, that lead them to a way
of thinking that with an act of violence like that another request can get an answer, so few days
after, another, smaller fire, took place.
The existence of violence in social community reflects at its best to the children of the
community. Many fights happen every day between gangs of children, mimicking the example
of their parents. Different nationality is usually the stimuli.

There are so many more examples of violence inside a camp, so I cannot refer to all of them,
and for sure I am not aware of all of them. I will just close with a questionable form of violence.
The violence of the protection. Last month the police has strong presence inside the camp,
with patrols and fast arrests. Is that a form of violation of liberty of acting and talking for the side
of the refugees, and if yes, is it preferable than the acts of violence between them for silly
reasons such the line food that were taking place last month?
In any case, to accuse the social community of a refugee camp for its violence acts, just
because its easier to observe them is just a wrong perspective. The same as in any community,
we can observe examples of violence inside the family, inside the community, violence
perpetrated or condoned by the State and institutions.
Moria camp and Moria village are two local regimes coming in conflict every day. The total
of the refuges in Lesvos island with the islands locals are two different societies. The total of the
refuges in Greece with the Greece as a state are other two bodies that are coming in conflict. And
the violence, in all the forms, is the common way to express that conflict. A bigger example
would be that of the image of the Europe opposing the flows of the others. That otherness is
that makes the pubic fear of violence so aroused. Whatever is not us is alien and dangerous.
Should we consider the violation of the borders of a country the first act of violence already?!

John Mamakos
Post-graduate student in the Master of Arts in Crisis and Historical Change
University of Aegean, Lesvos Island