Book Description

At the end of 1922, thousands of refugees settled in rudimentary shelters on the – until then- uninhabited western coast of the port of Piraeus. Beyond the limits of the then inhabited space, a new settlement emerged: Drapetsona. This book examines the labyrinthine world of workers and refugees, of makeshift sheds and industrial units, bringing to the fore the threads that connect the people, the settled space, and the economy. This research draws attention to the mechanisms of refugee settlement and sheds light on the everyday life of a self-built settlement which was shaped through its proximity with emblematic industrial units. By following the trajectory of the settlers from 1922 to 1967, the invisible people of the refugee and worker experience are transformed into the protagonists of history; a history which is composed of major social and economic shifts as much as it is the composite of the commonplace choices and decisions of the locals and the refugees, who created a world of their own at the end of the world.