Greece goes big as it plans to legalize the status of up to 300,000 migrants to address growing labor market shortages. Immigration Minister Dimitris Kairidis recently said the plan aims to ease acute shortages in:
- agriculture;
- tourism and;
- construction.
This includes immigrants whose residence permits have expired or who are undocumented. Kairidis argued that “the initiative will not encourage more irregular immigration but boosts public revenues with taxes and employment contributions and helps address dramatic shortages in some sectors.” The plan was discussed at a national security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, but has not yet been formalized. Greece’s migration flows more than tripled in August compared to the same month in 2022. Since the beginning of September, another 7,000 people have arrived on the Greek islands, pushing the capacity of immigration facilities to their limits.
The Minister of Rural Development, Lefteris Avgenakis, said for his part that foreign worker programs with countries such as Egypt and Bangladesh are often delayed due to bureaucratic obstacles and it is imperative to hire immigrants who are already in the country.
He also pointed out that there are many land workers in Greece who work in the underground economy creating “insecurity and causing social, health and financial problems”.
The government, which has been criticized for its harsh treatment of migrants, has promised to be “fair”. Dimitris Kairides told the FT that the Greek authorities would continue to “diligently guard the borders, but also provide very humane conditions for asylum seekers”.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis was voted in by the voters promising to stop illegal immigration and deport the illegally entered foreigners and now he announces that he will legalize them.
What do opponents say about new updates?
There have been many opposite remarks from opponents of the government and they mention their remarks as follows:
“When it is to legalize illegal immigrants “labor market” exists. When the Greeks are to stay in their homeland, there is no work. The State must do the best for the Greeks. To pave the way for young people to do (also) agricultural work. Many have already returned to their fields. But this is “not good” for many reasons. They want cheap workers and a Greece without Greeks. They drive away the minds, they drive away our children and we stay with the illegal immigrants.”
“On an annual basis, we need 180,000 land workers. The countries that over time covered this need are Egypt, Albania, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. For this reason, we persistently requested that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proceed immediately to strengthen our local embassies, and our offices so that the files can be examined. Because this issue seems to be delayed, we discussed just on Friday with the responsible minister for Immigration Policy Mr. Kairides a different idea, to see those who are illegally in our country and working”.
In addition, it discourages all those who would like to follow the legal route to come and work in our country and is an invitation to tens of millions of people from Africa Asia, and every other part of the planet to find a way to illegally enter Greece and the then the government itself will legalize them!
The primary production sector in our country does need workers, but passing a bill to legalize illegal immigrants is not a serious solution. And the great masses of foreigners who come and settle in the urban centers work in what kind of fields? And what happened to the interstate agreements to open legal channels for immigration that the Mitsotakis government advertised?”