"I will go to the church to pray to the Holy Virgin Mary so that I can find an employee for next year in time," says Matina, the owner of a boutique on the island of Tinos. She hopes for help from above - because her searches have so far been unsuccessful. In Greece, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find workers for the summer, almost everywhere there are signs saying "We are looking for personnel".
In the jewelry store next to Matina's boutique, the kind saleswoman Tamar barely knows Greek - after a brief greeting, the Georgian switches to English. To understand what the customers want from her, she has to call her boss. However, he is happy to have found a worker for the entire summer.
Staff is very difficult to find
In theory, people like Tamar can legally work in Greece. Last year, the country signed relevant agreements with Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, India, the Philippines and Vietnam - for the recruitment of 40,000 foreign workers. In reality, however, the agreements have hardly been implemented or are being implemented very slowly.
The bureaucracy is complicated, Greek consulates abroad are understaffed, and the conditions are not particularly attractive. That is why hoteliers across the country continue to frantically search for receptionists, cleaners, porters, waiters and cooks. According to the Greek Hoteliers' Union, the industry is short of at least 60,000 workers.
It has never been so critical
The situation is largely due to the pandemic, says Giorgos Chosoglou of the Federation of Food and Tourism Employees. "We are experiencing an unprecedented shortage of qualified and experienced workers, especially in the hotel and restaurant industry, after many people left during the lockdown. A large number of them have never returned to the industry."
According to Chosoglou, it is also important that the work is seasonal. Outside the season, workers are only entitled to unemployment benefits for three months. "How are they going to cope with the rest of the year when the cost of living keeps rising?" he asks.
More and more young Greeks are choosing to work seasonally in northern Europe, even as far away as Iceland. And many of the Albanians, who were relied on as cheap labor in Greece for decades, are either nearing retirement or are also leaving.
The Forgotten Albanians
The Greek economy has relied on migration since the 1990s - in tourism, agriculture and construction. Until the economic crisis, Greece was particularly dependent on workers from Albania. After that, the demand for labor fell sharply, but after the pandemic it is back, as the economy recovered and tourism grew strongly.
However, the same thing happened in other countries, which offered higher wages and easier procedures for legalizing immigrants. Because of this, many of the agricultural workers who left never returned to Greece. There is no doubt that Greece needs a more attractive policy towards refugees. Moreover, to the 60,000 workers needed by tourism, even more are needed in the construction and agricultural sectors.
A right turn instead of a smart refugee policy
However, the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has decided to play the anti-immigration card. It believes that the best way to overcome crises, scandals and declines in confidence is to pursue a tough policy against migrants. The aim is to attract right-wing voters.
The previous Minister of Migration, Makis Voridis, tried to complicate the lives of legal migrants - he introduced a "freeze" on the possibility of extending the period for issuing a work permit. This is a big problem for migrants who live and work in the country, some of them for years.
The new Minister, the far-right Thanos Plevris, has hardly dealt with the urgently needed legal migration since taking office. But he insists on tightening the right to asylum. According to him, the top priority is the deportation of illegal immigrants. Plevris's opinion is that migrants who have reached Europe illegally, or whose asylum application has been rejected, have no right to be in Europe - they must immediately return to their home countries.
Plevris is also the author of a law that provides for two to five years in prison for rejected asylum seekers who do not return to their home countries. “Anyone who is in our country illegally has two options - prison or return”, the minister emphasizes.
Author: Kaki Bali