Migration and Unregistered Labour in the Greek Economy

Gender and Migration in Greece: The Position and Status of Albanian Women in Patras

“…After the Second World War, due to severe social and economic problems, emigration accelerated and the exodus was covertly supported by successive Greek governments as an additional aspect of their economic and development policies (IOSIFIDES, 1997). According to Fakiolas (2000), nearly a million Greeks emigrated during the period 1945-73, with West Germany the main destination after 1961. The broad causes of postwar Greek emigration can be related to various factors ranging from political reasons, especially after the 1946-9 civil war, to high levels of open unemployment, poverty and hardship both in the countryside and in several towns and cities (FAKIOLAS and KING, 1996;PTEROUDIS, 1996).…”

“…During 1974-85, almost half of the Greeks in Europe repatriated (FAKIOLAS, 2000). The most important contributing factors behind this change were the relative deterioration of economic and labour market conditions in various destination countries, especially after the oil crisis of 1973, the difficulties of proper assimilation in host countries (especially in Germany) and the restoration of parliamentary democracy in Greece in 1974, after which there followed a period of economic development and low unemployment (IOSIFIDES, 1997;MOUSOUROU, 1991;PTEROUDIS, 1996).…”

“…The most important contributing factors behind this change were the relative deterioration of economic and labour market conditions in various destination countries, especially after the oil crisis of 1973, the difficulties of proper assimilation in host countries (especially in Germany) and the restoration of parliamentary democracy in Greece in 1974, after which there followed a period of economic development and low unemployment (IOSIFIDES, 1997;MOUSOUROU, 1991;PTEROUDIS, 1996). Towards the end of this period, both emigration from and return migration to Greece reached insignificant levels and net migration moved close to zero (FAKIOLAS, 2000). In the 1980s, foreign immigration replaced return migration as the key element in the positive migratory balance of the country (PETRINIOTI, 1993).…”

“…Other significant groups of women migrants are Bulgarians (21,179), Georgians (13,024), Russians (10,976), Ukrainians (10,264), Romanians (9,542), Poles (6,959) and Filipinas (4,928). According to FAKIOLAS (2000), immigrants comprise between 9 and 11 per cent of the registered Greek labour force of 4.4 million and over 25 per cent of wage and salary earners. It seems that Greece has, in proportion to its population, more immigrants than any other Southern European country.…”

Immigrants from Balkan countries in Greece: local and transnational processes of incorporation in Thessaloniki

“…Psimmenos (1998) underlined the increasing importance of private/personal services for the employment of Albanians in Athens: growing personal consumption generates a demand for immigrant workers to be employed as domestic cleaners/servants, manual workers performing house repairing tasks, general store assistants, etc. Additional factors such as the increasing participation of women in the labour force, the continuous enlargement of the housing space, the ongoing ageing of the population and the inadequate number of state kindergartens and care-institutions for the elderly, together with the still low participation of men in housework have contributed to rises in the demand for reproductive activities (Fakiolas, 2000). To an extent, in all Southern European countries the exodus of women to the labour market has been further facilitated through the employment of female immigrants in the household (King and Zontini, 2000).…”