a) Greece is situated in the southern part of Balkans and together with Italy forms one of the two prolonged southernmost capes of Europe. Its geographical position is further complicated with the fact that the country incorporates several thousand islands scattered throughout the Aegean and Adriatic Sea as well as the Mediterranean all of which wash Greece from the South and both from the east and the West. For the purposes of this paper is it vital to emphasize that the fact that Greece is one of the several southernmost points in Europe led to the fact that Greek island, together with Italy, have become one of the primary destinations of Syrian refugees fleeing the country in the circumstances of the protracted and blood-shedding civil war.
What is the most important branch of Greek history – again, for the purposes of this paper – is that Greece became part of the European Union on the 1 of January 1981. This is important in terms of the place Greece plays in the united Europe and policy it implements trying to solve the problem discussed in this essay.
The reason why Greece became the very important and popular issue lately consists in the fact that two major political – and not only political – issue overlap in this spot on the map of the world. The one is refugee crisis, and this is to be discussed below. The other is the debt crisis. And here is what this one consists in.
Economic crisis, its political dimensions, effects. It is hard to say what is the specific date when the economic crisis in Greece began, but it is known that it is unequivocally tied up with the world financial crisis that happened in 2007 and 2008. Among the major reasons of the debt crisis in Greece are the following. First of all, governments of Greece had been dishonest with the world as per the volume of its national debt and budget debt. Greek authorities showed to the world that the budget deficit was no more than 3 percent of GDP which enabled Greece to further enjoy easy-accessible EU-loans and other financial instruments. This deception led to significant misperception and divergences between declarations and economic realities which accentuated economic and financial problems of Greece. Secondly, the world financial crisis was the issue. Greece turned out to be one of the countries that were the most susceptible to it. The reason for that is the fact Greek economy relies too much on tourism and other services that shrunk in the time of the world financial crisis and led to even greater budget deficit of the state. Thirdly, there happened the crisis of trust to Greece which led to the unwillingness of other states to credit the country. Greece had to take new loans just to pay the old ones. Apart from all of this, Greece obviously has little own leverage to cope with the crisis, because it has no own currency, so it cannot print money to mitigate financial effects of the crisis. This turned into the vicious circle.
The main twist of the political dimension of the economic crisis consists in the fact that there is growing tension in the Greek society. One of the main ways to mitigate the crisis has been the policy of economy which is painfully perceived by the majority. So this led to the creation of the opposition led by the Syriza party that came to power in 2015. However, notwithstanding the populist approach, the party has failed to reach success. The government was dismissed but the party was reelected. Therefore, political crisis is going as well.
Demographic dimension and effects. According to official estimates, the economic crisis has influenced much both the structure and the dynamics of population as well as indexes of unemployment. In addition to the nation is slowly evaporating with only 1,4 reproductive index (whereas 2,1 is needed to maintain the same quantity of people) 27,3 percent – which is 1,4 million people are unemployed in Greece, with over 60 percent of those being people aged under 24. Another problem is that unemployed and retired people in Greece total at 4,1 million whereas working class constitutes only 3,8 million. Given these circumstances, it is especially hard to find jobs for women. Back in 2003 only 32,4 percent of the Greek workforce consisted of women whereas their fraction in the Greek population was at that time over 52 percent. Now, in the midst of the crisis, the situation is even worse.
During the last two years of war which have been the most intensive in terms of how many people came to Greece and to Europe through Greece more than 950 thousand people. And the trend is not consoling because in 2014 the number of received refugees was about 280 000 people whereas in 2015 this number has already exceeded 650 000. The most refugees come from Syria through Turkey or across the Mediterranean from Syria itself. However, some other starting point are popular, especially some African countries like Eritrea.
According to the official UNHCR statistics on distribution between genders and ages of migrants, it becomes obvious that this distribution is rather even. 50.5 percent of refugees are women. Within the age category 18-59 23,9 percent of refugees are women and 21,8 percent are men. Teenagers from 12 to 17 are not critically numerous – only about 12,5 percent. However, the share of incoming refugees below 12 is striking – 38,5 percent.
Main reasons why the population from the highlighted countries is migrating are several. Firstly, this is war; civil war in Syria, war against ISIS in Iraq as well as recurring conflicts (sometimes spilling over into full-fledged wars) in African states, like it the case with Eritrea.
Primary reasons of migration from Greece on into Europe are economic – given the above financial crisis in Greece, the latter is good for refugees only as the starting terrain. Such wealthy and stable countries as Germany and Sweden are their primary destinations. Social welfare in those countries is better, social payments guaranteed and economic possibilities are more significant.
Greek response to the migration crisis is mediocre. Greece cannot but let all those people in its territory but it violates rules of proper registration of refugees on the first terrain they reach in Europe which is the general rule for the EU. By doing this – as well as holding its northern borders open - Greece hopes not to have many refugees left in its territory eventually.
Nevertheless, Greek government does the best it can in the circumstances of the economic crisis. So far it has spent 350 million euros on giving shelter to the indicated number of taken refugees and are still going to spend 112 million euros in the year to come.
At the same time, there is a growing criticism on the part of the Greek government towards European states because only somewhat 500 refugees have already been relocated according to the quota share to other EU states whereas it has been agreed that this number had to exceed 60 000 people. There appear to have been offers from 13 EU states so far, which may seem not bad, but they offered relocation of only 595 people and only 82 relocations have happened so far.
General analysis.
There is a certain difference as to how government and people of Greece see the ways to cope the situation. The impoverished people that has lost its wealth in the course of the financial crisis that has been ongoing for about eight years so far fully understands the risks of taking in so many refugees. By the way the number of refugees approaching the million mark is even more scary is compared to the quantity of the Greek population which is only 11 million people. There are no job opportunities, no money and little hopes for the better within Greece, that is why very often the attitude towards Syrian-and-what-not refugees has been and continues to be negative, harsh and cruel. It can be judged from the conditions refugees live in. Greece has become notorious throughout the EU in terms of how it treats refugees. The government has received numerous times concerned comments to that end from the UNHCR and other human rights organizations.
The government, though obviously being the voice of the grassroots in politics, especially that the right-wing party Syriza is currently incumbent has to be more cautious in its negative sentiments because Greece these days relies too much on the EU support in the issue of the financial crisis. Therefore, the government is trying to build a constructive two-way dialogue. On the one hand, it has taken the responsibility to stick more to the regulations about registering refugees in its territory. In the other hand, it has expressed a firm demand to the other EU states to share the responsibility and to take parts of the total number of refugees coming to Greece to their own countries.
The biggest issue for Greece is economy. Perception of the migration crisis might have been different if Greece had enough potential to support those refugees better. But it arguably can support itself. That is why economy governs the political side of the problem to the very great extent. However, Greece is lucky enough – well, in this sense – that its being not robust economically pushes refugees further into the EU. Greece lets them to do that, notwithstanding the obviously unfaithful (towards the EU) conduct in doing so.
Building any expectations at this stage appears to be increasingly uncertain because the influx of refugees as well as their number becomes uncontrollable as the warfare in Syria and against ISIS is being fuelled further and further on. This makes plans for future very hazy. At the same time, the migration crisis has become a bone of discord between European Union states themselves because states act differently with respect to the crisis. Some states, like Greece and Italy are increasingly subject to pressure from the problem whereas other states, like the UK and Scandinavian states are displaying reluctance to admit more refugees in their territories even though there has been a package of measures agreed within the EU. The latter distributed certain shares of refugees between different states within the EU proportionally. At the same time, problems do not end here. Grassroots response in the European states themselves is very often rageful. For instance in Germany the too loyal policy towards refugees has resulted in the drastic loss of popularity y Angela Markel who is the incumbent Chancellor of the country.
Given all of the above, it must be said that refugees crisis is such a complex and complicated issue that it can hardly be resolved in the near future. With too many variables in game, with no unanimity in the European Union, with the latter’s being impervious to the pleads of Greece as well as with the unfaithful conduct of the latter in the many respects of the problem; finally with the two crises simultaneously overlapping in Greece it is hard to believe that Greece will find an unequivocal way out of the situation any time soon.
