Dimitris Skleparis
Biographic Data
| ID | 378893 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dimitris Skleparis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dimitris |
| FAMILY NAME | Skleparis |
| SIGNATURE | SKLEPARIS D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Newcastle University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6302-1277 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 516 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Intersubjective Empathy’ and the desecuritisation of migration: Assessing public attitudes and support for refugees in the UK
Extensive research has identified the mechanisms by which threat perceptions fuel hostility towards migrants, but less is known about how to counteract these successfully. Outgroup empathy has been proposed as a promising solution, yet its application is hindered by conceptual inconsistencies, methodological challenges, and an overreliance on self-reported measures. To address these limitations, we introduce Intersubjective Empathy (IE), a novel …
Territorial variance in the UK’s refugee politics and its consequences: Young Syrian refugees in England and Scotland
Access to social rights is crucial to refugee settlement and integration, and a whole range of social policy measures determine the limits on those rights. In the United Kingdom (UK) various relevant social policies are divided into devolved and reserved categories. This has resulted in a distinct territorial variance in social rights and welfare provisions within the country. The aim of this article is to explore how young Syrian refugees experi…
New migrant activism: Frame alignment and future protest participation
New migrant movements increasingly rely on unconventional forms of protest, which they strategically frame in rational terms, rather than as ‘acts of desperation’ that dominate public representations. This article demonstrates this empirically through a prototypical case of new migrant activism, employing discourse analysis to explore the collective framing of a hunger strike involving irregular migrants in Greece, which was, however, contested b…
What drives support for social distancing? Pandemic politics, securitization, and crisis management in Britain
Support for social distancing measures was, globally, high at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic but increasingly came under pressure. Focusing on the UK, this article provides a rigorous exploration of the drivers of public support for social distancing at their formative stage, via mixed methods. Synthesizing insights from crisis management and securitization theory, thematic analysis is employed to map the main frames promoted by the go…
Young Syrian refugees in the UK: A Two-Tier System of International Protection
This article explores the experiences of young Syrian refugees in the UK. It looks at how settlement plays out for two ‘types’ of Syrian refugees, those resettled by the UK Government and those who claim asylum in the UK. Drawing on new empirical data from 484 Syrian refugees in the UK, the article compares and contrasts the two groups’ access to educational provisions, the labour market and general support mechanisms that should, in principle, b…
Covering Migration—in Africa and Europe: Results from a Comparative Analysis of 11 Countries
While the issue of migration has heavily impacted on public debates in the Global North, much less is known about coverage of migration in the Global South. This pilot study sets out to de-westernize the discussion, by analyzing and comparing news coverage in migrants’ destination countries and countries of origin. The study’s focus is on media coverage of migration from Africa towards Europe.The paper builds upon prior studies on the coverage of…
Localising ‘radicalisation’: Risk assessment practices in Greece and the United Kingdom
This article juxtaposes anti-radicalisation policy in the United Kingdom, one of the pioneers in the field, with Greece, one of the latecomers. Drawing on localisation theory, our aim is to understand how ‘common knowledge’ of radicalisation and counter-radicalisation has materialised in the United Kingdom and Greece by exploring the development and use of radicalisation-related risk and vulnerability assessment tools. We argue that the radicalis…
A Europe without Walls, without Fences, without Borders: A Desecuritisation of Migration Doomed to Fail
It has been commonly argued that amid the so-called ‘migration crisis’ in 2015, Greece ignored its Dublin Regulation obligations due to unprecedentedly high migration flows, structural weaknesses, fears and uncertainty. However, this narrative deprives the Greek government of agency. In contrast, this article puts forward an alternative analysis of Greece’s attitude. It argues that the Greek government’s policy choices in the realms of border con…
Refugees, migrants, neither, both: Categorical fetishism and the politics of bounding in Europe’s ‘migration crisis
The use of the categories ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ to differentiate between those on the move and the legitimacy, or otherwise, of their claims to international protection has featured strongly during Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and has been used to justify policies of exclusion and containment. Drawing on interviews with 215 people who crossed the Mediterranean to Greece in 2015, our paper challenges this ‘categorical fetishism’, arguing that the…
European Governments’ Responses to the ‘Refugee Crisis’: The Interdependence of eu Internal and External Controls
In the face of the ‘refugee crisis’, many European governments, even in traditionally liberal states, unilaterally introduced a number of restrictive and, often, controversial migration, asylum, and border control policies. The author argues that past legal-bureaucratic choices on migration and asylum policies, ongoing developments in international relations at that time, the structural and perceived capacity of receiving states to cope with the …
The Politics of Migrant Resistance amid the Greek Economic Crisis
This paper focuses on a particular instance of migrant resistance: the hunger strike of three hundred irregular migrants in 2011 in Greece. It does not conceptualize the politics of migrant resistance as an isolated incidence of mobilization of irregular migrants against the government in support for their rights in existing institutions. By drawing on a set of fifty-two face-to-face semi-structured interviews with migrant protesters and organize…
Securitization of migration and the far right: The case of Greek security professionals
Since the events of 9/11, security concerns have gained unprecedented dominance on western governments' national and international political agendas; Greece has been no exception. The success or failure of a far right party, like Golden Dawn, depends on the effectiveness of the government to regulate immigration and to develop policies aimed at combating the racism which pervades the political culture of society at this particular juncture, when …
Q ui B ono: The Winners and Losers of Securitising Migration
It has become commonplace to argue that migration in most host states is socially constructed primarily as a security threat, a process known as ‘securitisation’. Political elites and security professionals are identified as the main agents that promote this particular framing of the issue. While securitisation is often implicitly considered as a goal-orientated process, paradoxically few studies have explored its actual consequences on policy an…
Refugees, migrants, neither, both: Categorical fetishism and the politics of bounding in Europe’s ‘migration crisis
The use of the categories ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ to differentiate between those on the move and the legitimacy, or otherwise, of their claims to international protection has featured strongly during Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and has been used to justify policies of exclusion and containment. Drawing on interviews with 215 people who crossed the Mediterranean to Greece in 2015, our paper challenges this ‘categorical fetishism’, arguing that the…
Securitization of migration and the far right: The case of Greek security professionals
Since the events of 9/11, security concerns have gained unprecedented dominance on western governments' national and international political agendas; Greece has been no exception. The success or failure of a far right party, like Golden Dawn, depends on the effectiveness of the government to regulate immigration and to develop policies aimed at combating the racism which pervades the political culture of society at this particular juncture, when …
A Europe without Walls, without Fences, without Borders: A Desecuritisation of Migration Doomed to Fail
It has been commonly argued that amid the so-called ‘migration crisis’ in 2015, Greece ignored its Dublin Regulation obligations due to unprecedentedly high migration flows, structural weaknesses, fears and uncertainty. However, this narrative deprives the Greek government of agency. In contrast, this article puts forward an alternative analysis of Greece’s attitude. It argues that the Greek government’s policy choices in the realms of border con…
Young Syrian refugees in the UK: A Two-Tier System of International Protection
This article explores the experiences of young Syrian refugees in the UK. It looks at how settlement plays out for two ‘types’ of Syrian refugees, those resettled by the UK Government and those who claim asylum in the UK. Drawing on new empirical data from 484 Syrian refugees in the UK, the article compares and contrasts the two groups’ access to educational provisions, the labour market and general support mechanisms that should, in principle, b…
What drives support for social distancing? Pandemic politics, securitization, and crisis management in Britain
Support for social distancing measures was, globally, high at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic but increasingly came under pressure. Focusing on the UK, this article provides a rigorous exploration of the drivers of public support for social distancing at their formative stage, via mixed methods. Synthesizing insights from crisis management and securitization theory, thematic analysis is employed to map the main frames promoted by the go…
New migrant activism: Frame alignment and future protest participation
New migrant movements increasingly rely on unconventional forms of protest, which they strategically frame in rational terms, rather than as ‘acts of desperation’ that dominate public representations. This article demonstrates this empirically through a prototypical case of new migrant activism, employing discourse analysis to explore the collective framing of a hunger strike involving irregular migrants in Greece, which was, however, contested b…
Covering Migration—in Africa and Europe: Results from a Comparative Analysis of 11 Countries
While the issue of migration has heavily impacted on public debates in the Global North, much less is known about coverage of migration in the Global South. This pilot study sets out to de-westernize the discussion, by analyzing and comparing news coverage in migrants’ destination countries and countries of origin. The study’s focus is on media coverage of migration from Africa towards Europe.The paper builds upon prior studies on the coverage of…
Localising ‘radicalisation’: Risk assessment practices in Greece and the United Kingdom
This article juxtaposes anti-radicalisation policy in the United Kingdom, one of the pioneers in the field, with Greece, one of the latecomers. Drawing on localisation theory, our aim is to understand how ‘common knowledge’ of radicalisation and counter-radicalisation has materialised in the United Kingdom and Greece by exploring the development and use of radicalisation-related risk and vulnerability assessment tools. We argue that the radicalis…
The Politics of Migrant Resistance amid the Greek Economic Crisis
This paper focuses on a particular instance of migrant resistance: the hunger strike of three hundred irregular migrants in 2011 in Greece. It does not conceptualize the politics of migrant resistance as an isolated incidence of mobilization of irregular migrants against the government in support for their rights in existing institutions. By drawing on a set of fifty-two face-to-face semi-structured interviews with migrant protesters and organize…
Q ui B ono: The Winners and Losers of Securitising Migration
It has become commonplace to argue that migration in most host states is socially constructed primarily as a security threat, a process known as ‘securitisation’. Political elites and security professionals are identified as the main agents that promote this particular framing of the issue. While securitisation is often implicitly considered as a goal-orientated process, paradoxically few studies have explored its actual consequences on policy an…
Securitization of migration and the far right: The case of Greek security professionals
Since the events of 9/11, security concerns have gained unprecedented dominance on western governments' national and international political agendas; Greece has been no exception. The success or failure of a far right party, like Golden Dawn, depends on the effectiveness of the government to regulate immigration and to develop policies aimed at combating the racism which pervades the political culture of society at this particular juncture, when …
The Politics of Migrant Resistance amid the Greek Economic Crisis
This paper focuses on a particular instance of migrant resistance: the hunger strike of three hundred irregular migrants in 2011 in Greece. It does not conceptualize the politics of migrant resistance as an isolated incidence of mobilization of irregular migrants against the government in support for their rights in existing institutions. By drawing on a set of fifty-two face-to-face semi-structured interviews with migrant protesters and organize…
European Governments’ Responses to the ‘Refugee Crisis’: The Interdependence of eu Internal and External Controls
In the face of the ‘refugee crisis’, many European governments, even in traditionally liberal states, unilaterally introduced a number of restrictive and, often, controversial migration, asylum, and border control policies. The author argues that past legal-bureaucratic choices on migration and asylum policies, ongoing developments in international relations at that time, the structural and perceived capacity of receiving states to cope with the …
A Europe without Walls, without Fences, without Borders: A Desecuritisation of Migration Doomed to Fail
It has been commonly argued that amid the so-called ‘migration crisis’ in 2015, Greece ignored its Dublin Regulation obligations due to unprecedentedly high migration flows, structural weaknesses, fears and uncertainty. However, this narrative deprives the Greek government of agency. In contrast, this article puts forward an alternative analysis of Greece’s attitude. It argues that the Greek government’s policy choices in the realms of border con…
Refugees, migrants, neither, both: Categorical fetishism and the politics of bounding in Europe’s ‘migration crisis
The use of the categories ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ to differentiate between those on the move and the legitimacy, or otherwise, of their claims to international protection has featured strongly during Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and has been used to justify policies of exclusion and containment. Drawing on interviews with 215 people who crossed the Mediterranean to Greece in 2015, our paper challenges this ‘categorical fetishism’, arguing that the…
Covering Migration—in Africa and Europe: Results from a Comparative Analysis of 11 Countries
While the issue of migration has heavily impacted on public debates in the Global North, much less is known about coverage of migration in the Global South. This pilot study sets out to de-westernize the discussion, by analyzing and comparing news coverage in migrants’ destination countries and countries of origin. The study’s focus is on media coverage of migration from Africa towards Europe.The paper builds upon prior studies on the coverage of…
Localising ‘radicalisation’: Risk assessment practices in Greece and the United Kingdom
This article juxtaposes anti-radicalisation policy in the United Kingdom, one of the pioneers in the field, with Greece, one of the latecomers. Drawing on localisation theory, our aim is to understand how ‘common knowledge’ of radicalisation and counter-radicalisation has materialised in the United Kingdom and Greece by exploring the development and use of radicalisation-related risk and vulnerability assessment tools. We argue that the radicalis…
New migrant activism: Frame alignment and future protest participation
New migrant movements increasingly rely on unconventional forms of protest, which they strategically frame in rational terms, rather than as ‘acts of desperation’ that dominate public representations. This article demonstrates this empirically through a prototypical case of new migrant activism, employing discourse analysis to explore the collective framing of a hunger strike involving irregular migrants in Greece, which was, however, contested b…
What drives support for social distancing? Pandemic politics, securitization, and crisis management in Britain
Support for social distancing measures was, globally, high at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic but increasingly came under pressure. Focusing on the UK, this article provides a rigorous exploration of the drivers of public support for social distancing at their formative stage, via mixed methods. Synthesizing insights from crisis management and securitization theory, thematic analysis is employed to map the main frames promoted by the go…
Young Syrian refugees in the UK: A Two-Tier System of International Protection
This article explores the experiences of young Syrian refugees in the UK. It looks at how settlement plays out for two ‘types’ of Syrian refugees, those resettled by the UK Government and those who claim asylum in the UK. Drawing on new empirical data from 484 Syrian refugees in the UK, the article compares and contrasts the two groups’ access to educational provisions, the labour market and general support mechanisms that should, in principle, b…
Territorial variance in the UK’s refugee politics and its consequences: Young Syrian refugees in England and Scotland
Access to social rights is crucial to refugee settlement and integration, and a whole range of social policy measures determine the limits on those rights. In the United Kingdom (UK) various relevant social policies are divided into devolved and reserved categories. This has resulted in a distinct territorial variance in social rights and welfare provisions within the country. The aim of this article is to explore how young Syrian refugees experi…
Intersubjective Empathy’ and the desecuritisation of migration: Assessing public attitudes and support for refugees in the UK
Extensive research has identified the mechanisms by which threat perceptions fuel hostility towards migrants, but less is known about how to counteract these successfully. Outgroup empathy has been proposed as a promising solution, yet its application is hindered by conceptual inconsistencies, methodological challenges, and an overreliance on self-reported measures. To address these limitations, we introduce Intersubjective Empathy (IE), a novel …
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Political economy (8 works) · Refugee (6 works) · Geography (5 works)