Immigration to Greece

Greece is largely an ethnically homogeneous state, and throughout the early period of its modern history it experienced emigration far more than immigration, particularly throughout the mid 20th century owing to the Greek Civil War and The Second World War (around 12% of the Greek population emigrated from 1881-1951). ["Immigration to Greece during the 1990s: An Overview, Maria Siadama"] The only previous (prior to 1990) examples of large scale immigration throughout Modern Greek History were the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey. Though the 1970s experienced the arrival of a small number of Polish, African, Egyptian and South Asian migrants (around 50,000 in total).

Throughout the 1990s, however, there has been a rise in large scale immigration, a large portion of it illegal, from neighboring Balkan countries, particularly Albania into Greece. This has become a major political issue in Greece and all major parties have addressed policies aiming to deal with it. In recent years statistics show that the relative peace in the Balkans today has led to a decline among Balkan based immigration to Greece. Other recent immigrant communities are Pakistanis, Iraqis and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

Reasons for large scale immigration in the 1990s

The reasons for this widespread immigration throughout the 1990s are widespread, the fall of the Soviet Union, compounded with other Balkan problems such as the Yugoslav Wars led to widespread political unrest and political uncertainty not only in the Balkans, but throughout other former Eastern Bloc countries as well. The demography of the region is also of particular interest, both Greece and Italy, which have aging populations, attracted immigration from countries with a younger workforce, the push factor being the latter's inability to find jobs in their home country combined with Greece's need for cheap labour (especially in small scale family businesses, which are still prevalent). Another primary factor in this large scale rise in immigration is also the narrowing of the gap in terms of living standards between Northern Europe and Southern Europe, Greece has become, according to some, an attractive destination to economic migrants because of steady growth rates and EU member status - the presence of an informal economy that pays well has also added to this 'pull' factor in immigration trends. For example, an Albanian worker in Albania is paid on average $3 per hour, whereas he or she can earn anywhere from $6-$10 on average for working an informal sector job within Greece. ["Migration News 1997", Droukas, E.] Greece's large coastline and multiple islands mean that policing the entry of migrants has also become increasingly difficult, as Greece's reliance on Tourism has meant that borders have never been harshly policed (though this has begun to change as with the rest of the continent). ["Recent Immigration to Southern Europe", Iosifides, T. and King, R.]

ee also

*Minorities in Greece
*Immigration to Europe

References