The diaspora, which has absorbed the culture of many countries, serves as a link with the outside world to strengthen friendly relations, trade, and information ties. The National Foundation of Greeks ensures the economic autonomy of the VSE, which made it possible to independently finance its programs – "Medical", "Promotion of National Interests for Greeks", "Olympic Games 2004", and others. Thus, more than 10,000 Greeks from 80 countries took part as volunteer helpers at the Olympics in Athens in the summer of this year.
Greece's entry into the EU led to rapid changes in the Greek economy and politics, but as a consequence – to unexpectedly heavy immigration flows, which in the last decade have simply overwhelmed all EU states. Every year, approximately 500,000 refugees enter Union countries illegally. Greece, a traditional exporter of labor, has unexpectedly transformed into a country receiving foreigners.
Greeks are credited with the saying that nothing separates and brings peoples together like the sea. In our time, this proverb has acquired concrete meaning. The sea has become almost the main route for immigrants to enter Europe, and consequently Greece with its 6,800 km coastline. In 2003 alone, the Greek coast guard detained a thousand illegal immigrants; dozens of them drowned without reaching the shore, but thousands of others managed to reach the desired European shore. It is no coincidence that the EU has created an Agency for the Protection of Maritime Borders and Combating Illegal Immigration, and 140 million euros have been allocated just for financing the Greek agency, which will be located in Piraeus.
However, the problem is not only to stop the illegal influx of immigrants. Much more acute is the question of what to do with more than a million people who have already settled in Greece, and half of them illegally.
More than half of all immigrants living in Greece are natives of Albania. Since Albania opened its borders in the late 1990s, Greece has witnessed a massive influx of Albanian citizens of both Greek (from southern Albania) and Albanian origin. During the 1990s, immigration policy toward Albanians was harsh, including mass deportation from Greece. However, deportation is a Sisyphean task, since those deported return, walking the entire way through mountainous terrain that is very difficult to guard. Albanian drug traffickers see Greece as a convenient transit point between the poppy fields of the East and the markets of the West and have no intention of leaving it.
At the same time, immigrants from Asia (Pakistanis, Indians) and Southeastern Europe are willing to do work that Greeks refuse, and for significantly less money. As a result, certain sectors of the economy, especially agriculture, construction, tourism, and also domestic help, are occupied by immigrants. Greek women are very proud of their homes and like to boast about cleanliness and comfort. In recent years, it has become fashionable to have helpers – Filipino girls, and this has spread like wildfire. In Greece, according to unofficial data, about 500,000 Filipino maids work, half of them illegally.
Filipinas are attracted not only by good earnings but also by the excellent climate. Many give birth to children in Greece and send them to school there, and learn the Greek language. Greeks note the decency and easygoing nature of the people of this Asian country. Bulgarian housekeepers play a special role in caring for children and the elderly; by education they often rank higher than the employers themselves, and Greeks appreciate this. Bulgarian women value most of all Greece's proximity to their country and to their children, and as a rule do not stay long. A large number of Ukrainian women who entered Greece illegally work in nightclubs and restaurants.
A significant percentage of immigrants who moved to Greece for permanent residence over the past 15 years at the invitation of the Mitsotakis government are repatriates from the former USSR, as well as Greeks of Pontic origin. They have assimilated perfectly into the country and, joining the ranks of Greek merchants and builders, quickly achieved a good material and social level. Numerous "new Russians" also work in Greece and have no intention of returning to the former Union; they came with large sums of money, rent or buy expensive real estate in Greece, but educate their children either in English schools in Athens or abroad.
By 2003, Greece's population reached 11 million, largely thanks to immigrants. According to the Greek Ministry of Education, the number of immigrant children attending Greek public schools tripled from 1996 to 2003 and now stands at 120,000.
Most Greeks are very tolerant of foreigners who are ready to accept their way of life and learn the Greek language. They fully agree with the opinion of the ancient Greek orator who, back in the 3rd century BC, said: "We call Greeks those who share a common culture with us." Respect for foreigners, for example, is expressed in the fact that they are never made the subject of anecdotes or jokes. With the exception of Turks, Greeks bear no ill feelings toward anyone.
They also do not particularly favor Albanians, who, as believed in Greece, "managed to profit from the Greek Civil War" and annexed "Northern Epirus" (Southern Albania) with 500,000 Greeks who were long behind the Iron Curtain. However, criminal activity among immigrants, including organized crime, drug trafficking, and prostitution, is very high and increasingly fuels public discontent and leads to manifestations of xenophobia.
Realizing that an increase in the number of immigrants in European countries is completely inevitable, the Greek government cannot help but be concerned that by 2020, according to experts' estimates, Europe will accept 30 million immigrants, many of whom will choose Greece. Therefore, during its last presidency of the European Union in 2003, Greece particularly highlighted the issues of immigration, asylum, and protection of external borders. According to Greek representatives, EU policy in this area does not correspond to the scale of the phenomenon, and resolving the issues of socio-economic adaptation of third-country citizens residing in EU member states and adopting administrative measures to strengthen control over migrant flows cannot be postponed.
The issue of immigration quotas is now being actively discussed, but no one is going to close European borders. Economic growth and increased competitiveness of European countries cannot do without a well-planned and balanced immigration policy, which provides for investing the necessary funds in managing migration flows and the smooth adaptation of immigrants by European societies. A positive example of solving the problem was the admission to Greece of about 40,000 construction workers from the former Republic of Macedonia to help build the Olympic facilities, which the Greeks were in a hurry to complete on time.
The Greek government shares the opinion that regulated immigration will have a beneficial effect on the situation in the EU and that without it, solving the demographic, economic, and many other problems of the Old World is impossible. But how should one respond to the fact that, according to forecasts, by 2015 immigrants, entering Greece mainly illegally, will already make up 25% of the country's population?