Migration and Migration Policy in Greece | Southern Europe | bpb.de

Despite the ebbs and flows in figure 1 throughout the past decade, the top nationalities of third country nationals in Greece appear to have remained relatively stable in the last five years, suggesting that many have now settled in Greece (see Table 2).

The data show the predominance of Albanians among third country nationals residing in Greece. Many Albanians hold ten-year renewable permits. Of the 508,452 persons who held valid permits in December 2020, 62,3 percent were Albanian nationals. Similarly, in 2020, they were the top nationality in the Golden Visa program, which grants permanent residence permits to third country nationals and to members of their families, who purchase real estate property in Greece worth at least 250,000 Euros. In the framework of this program, 2,555 Visas were issued to Albanian nationals in 2020. Chinese nationals were at the top of this residence-by-investment program in 2019 with 10,787 permits issued. For 2021, Chinese nationals are once more at the top for golden visa with 6,274 new applications.

Migration policy

Greece's migration policy since the 1990s has predominantly sought to manage and reduce inflows of migrants. Policy design has been reactive rather than proactive, focusing on numerous legislative changes that are often complex and bureaucratic yielding limiting results. Between 1998 and 2008 several regularisation programs sought to address the presence of a growing number of people living in the country irregularly by facilitating the acquisition of residence/work permits for undocumented migrants. Between 2008 and 2014 the policy focus was on border control and a reform of the asylum system. However, in 2010, an attempt was made to improve integration processes by facilitating naturalization for second generation children as well as by granting third country nationals residing in Greece the right to vote and to stand for election at the local level (Law 3838/2010 ). However, aspects of the law were ruled unconstitutional in 2013 and the previous system was reinstated.

Throughout 2014-2015 legislative changes sought to address gaps regarding the settlement and integration of migrant groups already present in the country. In 2014, the Immigration and Social Integration Code (L4251/2014) was introduced. An important element of the Code was the introduction of a long-term residence permit for third country nationals. The Codification facilitated also the passing of a new law (L4332/2015 ) offering citizenship to second generation children born and/or educated in Greece and providing refugees with the possibility to apply for naturalisation after three years of stay. In 2019, the new liberal-conservative government of Nea Dimokratia introduced a mandatory written citizenship test prior to a verbal interview and increased to seven years of stay the requirement for naturalisation of refugees.

Greek migration policy overall has been restrictive since the early 1990s, especially as regards asylum. Particularly since the refugee ‘crisis’ of 2015, several legislative changes have sought to grapple with the asylum-seeking population in the country by placing a strong focus on deterrence. Most notable is the International Protection Act (IPA) (Law 4636/2019) that was amended shortly after its adoption on 1 November 2019 (by L4686/2020) . These two reforms restricted access to the asylum procedure further and regularised the practice of detention of asylum seekers for up to 18 months while massively reducing access to material care. The Greek government under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis places emphasis on border security, with the reinforcement of the border fence along the land border with Turkey in the Evros region and strengthened border patrols both after the February 2020 Evros incident (when thousands of migrants were encouraged to attempt to cross the Greek land border from Turkey ) and the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in August of 2021. Persistent issues since 2020 remain the alleged pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish borders, poor reception conditions (especially on the Greek islands in the Aegean) and an insufficient framework of assistance for asylum seekers and recognized refugees, as well as insufficient education for asylum-seeking minors and young adults, and the absence of a comprehensive integration plan.

Thirty years after receiving the first large-scale inflow of immigrants and seven years after the European ‘refugee crisis’, Greece is still grappling with its transformation from a sending and transit country to a destination for migrants and refugees.