Migration Policy in Greece

According to our estimates, the real number of the immigrants and the ethnic returnees in Greece is much more than a million, which is equivalent to 9% of the population and 12% of the labour force of the country. The goal of the Greek immigration policy of the last 15 years has been the restriction of immigration (legal and illegal), which has been considered to be “harmful” for the Greek society socially, economically, and culturally. The related laws stressed the legitimatization of the irregular migrants but even more they put the emphasis on the internal and external control. We consider that Greece today is in need of a pro- active immigration policy to control the legal immigration, allowing for the integration of the foreigners who already live in the country and the legal entrance of new immigrants, according to the needs of the Greek labour market.

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