Migrants in Greece in times of crisis : Opportunities and dangers
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2012-11
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en
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Abstract
Over the last years Greece has emerged as a country of great importance for the
migrants from Asia and Africa heading for Europe. From a clearly traditional
emigration country, Greece has turned into a host country as well. As a result, many
studies and researches have started taking place in order to reveal and explain various
issues that emerge from the phenomenon of migration to this specific country.
The current thesis attempts to present, through the migrants’ perspective, the
quality of their lives in Greece in the context of the economic crisis plaguing the
country. Being the result of a research that was based on the use of methodological
tools of the qualitative research, it studies the lives of the migrants in Greece as those
are determined by the EU and the Greek government, the dangers they face inside
Greek society and their developed networks in the country.
The majority of migrants who enter Greece wishes to migrate to a country of
the Northern and Western Europe. However, the laws and treaties of the EU countries
force them to stay in Greece extending often for many years the transit period in this
country. The fear of deportation leads them to apply for asylum in Greece and
therefore to the compulsory waiting of the decision in the specific country. The Greek
laws are characterized by a vast bureaucracy and they are violated by the authorities
themselves. Migrants’ first experience in Greece is the life in detention camps near
the Greek-Turkish borders under extremely harsh conditions for which Greece has
been repeatedly criticized by national and international human rights organizations.
After a period of stay in these camps many of them move to the big cities of Greece,
mainly to Athens and to Thessaloniki, where they try either to begin a new life or to
work and save money to continue their journey to the West. The economic crisis
plaguing Greece has affected to a large extent migrants’ lives in these Greek cities
because of its social consequences. A growing xenophobia inside the gulfs of the
Greek society and an unprecenteded increase in the racist violence together with the
arbitrariness from the side of a large part of the Greek police have led to an even
bigger degradation of the migrants’ lives where danger and fear are added to their
exploitation in the labour sector. The quality of the migrants’ lives, however, can be
facilitated by the existence of personal social networks which, in these difficult and
dangerous times, are helpful not only in matters of accommodation and work but also
in providing the feeling of safety and the will to go on with their lives.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen