Immigration to Greece. A First Attempt at Recording, Classification and Analysis

Author: X. Petrinioti
Date: 1993 - Athens
Publisher: Odysseas ISBN: 960-210-170-9

This is the Greek version of a study commissioned by Directorate General V of the European Commission. During the late 1980s and early 1990s Greece was becoming an immigration country. While the population of E.U. nationals had gone up slightly, the real influx was by "third country" citizens. This study analyses the "push" and "pull" factors of the recent wave of immigration and assesses the immigration potential of Greece for the near future.

Specifically, the study classifies them in four main categories: returning ethnic Greeks (about 167.000); . regular. immigrants (about 123.000) who are third country nationals both from the developed and the developing world; . irregular. immigrants estimated at 180.000 - 260.000 who have entered illegally and whose presence and/or employment is not recorded by authorities; and a small number of refugees who have been granted asylum in Greece (about 3.000) and another 2.000 who are under the mandate of the U.N. High Commission of Refugees. The total number of immigrants has been estimated at 525.000 or about 5.2% of the population. The . peculiarities. of the Greek . immigration picture. include: a) the large component of returning ethnics b) the relatively low E.C. rate of immigration, c) the high density of sending countries, d) the high . illegal immigration. rate and e) the incidence of . wait immigration. , i.e. migrants who stay in Greece for a period of time awaiting permanent settlement elsewhere.