Immigration, inequality and diversity. Socio-ethnic hierarchy and spatial organization in Athens

This paper draws attention to the socio-spatial diversity of immigrant groups in Athens by investigating their changing hierarchical position in both society and space. The varying demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the immigrant population generate hierarchies of immigrant groups, which are reflected in intricate ways in the residential distribution of immigrants in the metropolitan area. Diversity seems to be interconnected with hierarchically unequal social positions, and these positions are in turn interconnected with the transformation of the spatial hierarchy in the Greek capital. This hierarchical diversity is expressed by a spatial typology of immigrants’ locations in Athens. The paper ultimately explores how this typology tends to alter the urban social ecology (in terms of socio-ethnic composition of distinct spatial clusters) and the urban structural dynamics (in terms of interactions between different ethnic and social groups) in an increasingly unequal city.