Zoe Holman is a journalist, historian and poet, writing on international politics, gender and the Middle East. Her reporting and essays have appeared in outlets including The Guardian, The Economist, London Review of Books, The Sydney Morning Herald and VICE.
Today, Zoe Holman is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about her new book, Where the Water Ends — an expansive account of the refugee crisis and the people at its heart. Read on …
Zoe Holman
Please tell us about your book, Where the Water Ends.
ZH: Where the Water Ends is a work of literary journalism that documents the effects of Europe’s border regime on individuals through the experiences of those currently seeking asylum in Greece. Immersing the reader in the stories of places and people—including Greeks, international activists and asylum-seekers—it weaves together events in the Middle East and socio-political, economic and historical developments in Greece, including the country’s own history of displacement and exile. In doing so, it seeks to bridge the conceptual divide between an idea of ‘Europe’ and ‘the East’ and reflect on the reality of present-day migration in Europe (and globally) with sobriety, nuance and above all, humanism.
What drew you to write about the European refugee crisis?
ZH: I have long been engaged with refugee rights issues, both in Australia and abroad, while my background working on the Middle East gave me a sense of continuity between developments in that region and the recent mass displacement of asylum-seekers to Europe. So the current EU migration context seemed a suitable framework for narrating events in the Middle East as well as asylum-seeking as a global and historical issue. At the same time, the compelling human and geographic landscape in Greece seems to lend itself so readily to writing about—and this was difficult to resist!
You’ve spent a number of years living in Greece, where you’ve been documenting the crisis firsthand. Can you describe what life is like in Greece right now for both citizens and the refugees being hosted there?
ZH: Despite the end of the formal EU bailout agreement, most Greeks continue to live the effects of the economic crisis and austerity—a circumstance which will be further exacerbated by the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially under the right-wing policies of the New Democracy government. Given the under-resourcing of the country’s social security system and mismanagement of EU funds for the migration, circumstances for the more than 150,000 asylum-seekers in Greece are all the more precarious, and worsening steadily. Due to its geographic location as a landing point in Europe, Greece currently hosts a disproportionate number of asylum-seekers who have been stranded in the country by EU policies to curb migration—namely the so-called ‘EU Turkey deal’ of 2016. The vast EU funds that Greece has received to support asylum-seekers are scarcely evident in a material reality that sees the majority living in utterly inhumane conditions in overcrowded and isolated camps while awaiting their claims processing—a process that normally takes years. Even those who have received refugee status in Greece typically find themselves without any security in the form of housing, financial or employment assistance or official integration programs like language training.
Over 20,000 people have died or disappeared while trying to enter Europe since 2012 – a staggering number. How do you begin to make sense of this crisis in a way that will make an impact with individual readers?
ZH: Much of the coverage we see about migration in Europe is concerned with statistics or questions of scale. While this data is significant—and often appalling—I think it can become a little abstract when not rooted in some more tangible physical reality or individual experience. So I wanted to try to capture and convey a sense of the material, subjective and personal dimensions of this information, including the stark rates of fatality and border violence: for example, what does it look or feel like to try to wade across a militarised river in mid-winter? How does the prospect of living in a tent for three years shape your thought processes? What actually happens to all those who drown on Europe’s doorstep?
What do you think is the biggest misconception that people have about refugees and forced migration?
ZH: I think one of the biggest myths—an idea typically propagated by politicians and media—is the notion that if a host country accepts asylum-seekers through secure, equitable and humane processes that this will somehow act as a ‘pull factor’ and encourage an influx of migration. The recent EU experience has confirmed that policies of closure and mistreatment aimed at ‘deterrence’ will not stop people trying to flee danger or seek greater security. All these systems do is enhance danger, destroy lives and I would argue, reinforce social divisions in the longer-term.
‘Policies of closure and mistreatment aimed at ‘deterrence’ will not stop people trying to flee danger or seek greater security.’
Why do you think that this ‘isolationist spirit’ prevails amongst many governments in conjunction with anti-refugee sentiment?
ZH: Since the 2015 peak in arrivals to the EU, we have seen a retreat from an idea of migration as a shared and collective responsibility among member states, accompanied by a sealing (and often violent policing) of EU borders. Instead of accepting agreed quotas of asylum-seekers, the EU increasingly favours a system of paying to ‘outsource’ migration—be it to states like Greece or further afield to Libya and others states. Far from the ‘Willkommenskultur’ which emerged in countries like Germany in 2015, political and media discourse—by both centrist and extreme right groups—now often frames migration as a negative and threatening force, be it to national identity, security or citizens’ economic welfare. I think this kind of insular attitude plays a significant role in fostering anti-refugee sentiment on a popular level. At the same time, it is easy for politicians and movements with anti-immigration agendas to capitalise on existing grievances about economic circumstances, for example in countries like Greece, and to (mis)direct the blame for this sense of hardship toward migrants. This isolationist spirit is not limited to European governments, of course, and has also produced migration policies like Australia’s ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ and Trump’s ‘America first.’
What do you think is the first step that Europe needs to take in order to meaningfully address the crisis?
ZH: It follows from the above that the first step is for EU member states to reach a more mature resolution about shared responsibilities and asylum-seeker intakes. Rather than investing in border-security forces and other deterrence measures, it needs to direct funding toward establishing safer and more equitable systems for asylum-seeking. At a more fundamental level though, I think a huge evolution is needed in the conception of migration and its place in Europe, since the current treatment of asylum-seekers has so vastly betrayed notions of human rights that is hard to credibly reconcile with Europe’s self-image as a free and equitable society.
Is there anything that gives you hope for a better future for refugees?
ZH: Despite the punitive border policies that have produced such dire conditions for asylum-seekers in Europe (and elsewhere like Australia), I have been overwhelmingly impressed by the solidarity and support demonstrated by Greeks and non-Greeks in this country. This has manifested in forms of self-organisation, from large-scale material projects—such as camps, housing initiatives and food provision—to search and rescue missions and social and political co-operation. This seems to me to be a hopeful reminder that whatever harsh, inadequate or unjust treatment governments deliver to asylum-seekers, a spirit of humanism and solidarity remains alive on a community level.
What do you hope readers will discover in Where the Water Ends?
ZH: I hope readers will find themselves on new terrain, geographical and socio-cultural, but also on fresh ground in terms of considering different types of human experiences and how they can inform the values we adopt and directions we take as societies. Which is to say, I hope they will feel and think, and perhaps laugh and cry.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
ZH: Hopefully continuing work on borders from a different perspective—including crossing a few more of them in 2021!
Thanks Zoe!
—Where the Water Ends by Zoe Holman (Melbourne University Publishing) is out now.
Where the Water Ends
Seeking refuge in fortress Europe
Around the world, forced migration doubled in the decade leading up to 2019. Over that time, the borders of the European Union became the world's deadliest frontier. More than 20,000 people have died or disappeared while attempting to gain entry since 2012, the year the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In Where the Water Ends, Zoe Holman traces the story of this frontier from the perspective of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, via Greece, the cradle of European and...
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