Rising Intolerance in Greek Political Life

During the last 20 years, Greece has rapidly transformed from a migrant sending to a migrant receiving country. More than 1.1 million or approximately 10% of the country’s 11 million population are immigrants. Since 2007 flows of irregular migrants and asylum seekers from Asia and Africa via Turkey to Greece have intensified. The Greek Turkish border has become the main ‘gate’ to Europe. In addition, since 2009 Greece has been facing an acute economic crisis with important consequences for both immigrant and native populations. Unemployment has skyrocketed for either group to more than 20% in 2012. At the same time Greece has had a malfunctioning asylum system unable to register let alone process asylum seeking requests of Asian and African immigrants, while its overall immigration policy (regarding both migration management and migrant integration) leaves a lot to be desired. These developments have contributed to creating an alarming situation, particularly in the Athens inner city areas.