Immigration to Greece

Immigrant hawkers in Monastiraki in Athens

Immigration to Greece percentage of foreign populations in Greece is 7.1% in proportion to the total population of the country.[1] Moreover, between 9 and 11% of the registered Greek labor force of 4.4 million are foreigners.[2] Migrants additionally make up 25% of wage and salary earners.[2]

As of 2012, Albanian migrants constitute some 55–60% or more of the immigrant population. More recent immigrant groups, from the mid-1990s on, consist of Asian nationalities—especially Pakistani and Bangladeshi—with more recent political asylum and/or illegal migration flows through Turkey of Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians and others. Since the 1990s, increases in such flows have led to the emergence of immigration as an increasingly important political issue in Greece.

Immigrants fill roles mainly in the informal sector, and there are large numbers of illegal immigration in Greece today. As larger numbers of migrants entered Greece in the 1990s, the Greek government's immigration policy began to be seen as lacking the control and legal framework to manage the situation. While the Greek government has made some changes in immigration policy, immigration reform remains a low priority.

In 2015, arrivals of refugees by sea have increased dramatically in Greece mainly due to the ongoing Syrian Civil War. There were 856,723 arrivals by sea in Greece, an almost fivefold increase to the same period of 2014.[3] An estimated 8% of the arrivals applied for asylum in Greece, with others hoping to find asylum in Northern European countries.[4] On 13 August 2019, 650 migrants arrived on sixteen boats in Greece for the first time in such mass since 2016.[5] As a result, the government decided to increase border patrols and deportations to control the sudden migrant influx.[6]

  1. ^ 6.5% of the EU population are foreigners and 9.4% are born abroad Archived 12 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Eurostat, Katya VASILEVA, 34/2011.
  2. ^ a b Papadopoulou, Aspasia. "Smuggling into Europe: transit migrants in Greece." Journal of Refugee Studies 17.2 (2004): 167–184.
  3. ^ "Refugees/Migrants Emergency Response - Mediterranean, Greece". UNHCR. 13 February 2016. Archived from the original on 17 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  4. ^ "GREECE, UNHCR OPERATIONAL UPDATE" (PDF). UNHCR. 21 August 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  5. ^ "Greece sees first mass arrival of migrant boats in three years". Reuters. 30 August 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  6. ^ "Greece to increase border patrols and deportations to curb migrant..." Reuters. 31 August 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2019.