Governing Migration through Hotspots in Greece: Reconfiguration of Greek and European Political Subsystems in Chios during the 2015 “Migrant Crisis”

The 2015 “migrant crisis” transformed the European Union’s border management, reshaping its migration policies through the “hotspot approach”. Implemented on Greek islands and in Italy, this approach established a temporary governance framework, combining European agencies and national authorities, which has gradually become institutionalized. On the island of Chios, it led to a fragmentation of Greek political sovereignty and public action, while strengthening the role of European agencies. Drawing on interviews conducted between 2022 and 2023 with Greek and European institutional actors, this article analyzes these dynamics using the concept of political subsystems and explores their reconfiguration within the framework of migration governance.