Turning the refugee crisis into an opportunity? : current challenges for Greece and suggestions for action

Abstract

Despite being confronted with a severe economic and social crisis for the past six years, Greece has been faced with exponentially rising flows of asylum seekers and irregular migrants since 2013, and particularly during 2014-2015. None had predicted the dramatic escalation in asylum-seeking flows that took place during the first 10 months of 2015 and which are still in full swing. By 13 November 2015, 666,502 people had arrived in Greece, mostly crossing from Turkey to the Aegean islands, and most fleeing war and violence in their home countries (Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but also Pakistan and Somalia). In October alone, more than 200,000 people crossed the Mediterranean to Greece, many of them specifically passing through the island of Lesvos. During the same period (Jan to mid-November 2015), Italy received 141,777 people.