The More You Look the Less You See: Visibility and invisibility of Sudanese migrants in Athens, Greece

How do undocumented migrants maintain different degrees of visibility in public space? How does public visibility affect the livelihood strategies of undocumented migrants? In this work based on participant observation among undocumented Sudanese migrants during 2011 and 2012 in Athens, Greece, I demonstrate how different degrees of public visibility offer adaptive livelihood strategies in an environment of exclusion and marginalization. Social visibility, defined as the everyday practices of seeing and being seen, is linked to the livelihood strategies of undocumented migrants, interacting in different ways to shape the strategies of Sudanese migrants within the urban spaces of Athens.