Migrants in the Old Train Wagons Borderland in Thessaloniki: From Abandonment to Infrastructures of Commoning
- Charalampos Tsavdaroglou Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Greece
- Paschalis Arvanitidis Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Greece
- Zacharias Valiantzas Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Abstract
The article examines the living and infrastructuring practices of homeless newcomer migrants who find
shelter in abandoned train wagons in the west end of Thessaloniki, an area described as “one of the biggest
train cemeteries in Europe.” Hundreds of train wagons have been abandoned there over the years, especially
after the 2010 financial crisis, when the state‐owned railway company was faced with significant financial
difficulties. These abandoned wagons form an urban borderland and have provided temporary shelter to
numerous homeless and unregistered migrants who stop in Thessaloniki on their route to Central and
Northern Europe. Although there is a significant number of studies which discuss the formal infrastructures
provided by the state and the NGOs, little attention has been given to the various ways by which homeless
and unregistered migrants create and self‐manage their own infrastructures to meet their needs. The article
aims to shed light on this shortage while examining the (re)production of arrival infrastructures by the
migrants themselves. In doing so, the article builds upon the concept of abandonment and attempts to
enrich it by drawing on the theories of arrival infrastructures and urban commons. It combines spatial
analysis and urban ethnography in order to explore how an urban borderland with abandoned
infrastructures, like the train wagons, are re‐used and transformed into commoning infrastructures, where
newcomers and settled migrants join their forces in their attempt to support each other, meet their needs
and of “becoming otherwise.”
Download the article here: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/6967
Tsavdaroglou, C., Arvanitidis, P., & Valiantzas, Z. (2024). Migrants in the Old Train Wagons Borderland in Thessaloniki: From Abandonment to Infrastructures of Commοning. Urban Planning, 9. doi:https://doi.org/10.17645/up.6967
