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Economic immigrants leave Greece

16 August 2014 / 17:08:16  GRReporter
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Not only the Greek youth are leaving the country in search of work in the east and the west. Economic immigrants who remain jobless and prefer to return to their homeland are also buying one-way tickets on a mass scale.

Economic statistics confirm this: the Greek Statistical Office notes a rapid decrease in population, the Bank of Greece notes leakage of accounts, and the IKA Insurance Fund - a reduction in the number of insured persons.

There are three sets of statistics that are apocalyptic:

1. In the course of only one year, the number of citizens of non-EU countries living in Greece fell by 164,959. According to the Greek Statistical Office, they numbered 817,860 in 2011 and 650,825 in 2012. The biggest wave of departing immigrants is that of Albanian citizens. The wave of departing immigrants continued in 2013 as well, but there is no new information.

2. According to Kathimerini daily, the accounts of citizens from countries outside the Eurozone in Greek banks fell by € 30 billion for the period from June 2010 until June 2014. According to the Bank of Greece, this trend is continuing, as in the past 12 months alone (June 2013 - June 2014) around € 3.5 billion were withdrawn.

All this is due to the collapse in the labour market.

3. Information from IKA Insurance Fund shows that for the five years of the crisis from 2009 to 2013, 33 percent of the jobs held by foreign nationals were lost.

In particular:

  • In December 2013, 159,676 (99,826 men and 59,850 women) foreign nationals were registered in the IKA. In December 2009, there were 237,470 people (160,901 men and 76,569 women). This means that for a period of four years, the number of jobs has decreased by 77,794. The loss of so many salaries is explained by the departure of over 133,000 people. Mostly, the number of working Albanians has fallen. Towards the end of 2009, they numbered 121,902 and at the end of 2013, there remained 85,893. At the end of 2013, 90.15% of the total number of insured persons in IKA were Greeks against 87.17% at the end of 2009.
  • The rapid decrease of jobs for foreigners is attributed to the collapse in the construction industry. The number of foreign nationals insured in construction activities decreased by 69.42% for the period 2009-2013. In 2009, around 116,893 workers in the construction sector were insured in IKA, 45% of which, or 52,621 people, being foreigners. In 2013, only one third of the jobs in the sector remained and the number of foreigners decreased from 52,621 to 16,089. The decrease in the number of companies in the sector is also dramatic. They were 43,808 at the end of 2009 and only 16,046 at the end of 2013.

In 2013, the IKA noted an increase in the number of insured persons. This increase, given that unemployment has not declined, is largely due to the fact that companies are afraid of fines that might be imposed on them for uninsured employees (to the amount of € 10,550) and would not risk hiring "black" workers.

Various programmes offering jobs to tens of the thousands of citizens also help increase the number of insured employees. Fear of fines also leads to an increase in the number of insured foreigners – from 172,832 in 2011 their number decreased dramatically in 2012 to 133,720, to go up in 2013 to 159,676.

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