Eventually, who will stay in Greece?

                  The characteristics of Greek emigration due to the current economic crisis is not the central topic of my research, but these TV reports and newspaper articles (see links below) give a good idea about the interconnection between emigration from Greece and immigration to Greece today.According to this media sources, the common trend for many Greeks and foreign work migrants today is to leave the country due to economic reasons: the interdependence of the economic problems of the Greek "employers" and of their foreign "employees" is very clear and logic. Taking into account the unhappy predictions about the duration of the economic crisis in Greece and state loan repayments, I believe that if the volume of emigrants continue to rise, the Greek state which is unable to fight unemployment, might be forced to make changes in its immigration policies and make them more lucrative for work migrants., thus creating an attractive pull factor. Perhaps these changes will be related to facilitation of visa regime for non-EU countries (I have presented and analysed this topic in previous posts), e.g. the faster implementation of EU initiative for the visa-free travel regime for Moldova which is a donor-country of potential migrant workers and a source of cheap labour force (since Moldova is the poorest country in Europe). For Greece all this sounds like a great opportunity.

Some more media sources on Greek emigration today for those who are interested:

1. http://mediacenter.dw-world.de/english/audio/#!/46908/Disillusioned_Greeks_emigrate_to_Turkey
2. http://www.turkishgreeknews.org/ellines-metanasteyoyn-stin-kypro-gia-kalyteri-doyleia-3796.html
3. http://www.newskosmos.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40191:2010-12-21-10-29-35&catid=38:world&Itemid=57
4. http://www.directnews.gr/greece/999-2011-02-04-13-35-57.html
5. http://www.cretalive.gr/new/27543/expatriate/Perissoteroi_Ellines_theloun_na_metanasteusoun_-_ligoi_to_apofasizoun
6. http://news.kathimerini.gr/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_1_29/01/2011_430636