Ukrainians in Greece
31.07.2017
Ukrainians in Greece
Greece is a European state, located in the south of the Balkan Peninsula and numerous islands. In the north it borders on Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria, and in the east - with Turkey. The southern shores are washed by the Mediterranean Sea, the western ones are Ionian, and the eastern ones are Aegean. The Greek Republic also includes the monastic monastic republic of Athos, located on the Halkidiki peninsula Aion-Oros. The area of ??the country is 131 957 square meters. Km, population - 10.7 million people. The capital is Athens.
Modern Greece is the heir to the culture of ancient Greece and is considered to be the cradle of Western civilization, the birthplace of world democracy, Western philosophy, the basic principles of physical and mathematical sciences, the arts of theater and the Olympic Games of our time. The Greek language has the longest history among all the languages ??of the Indo-European group, because it has 34 centuries only in the written period. On the basis of the Greek alphabet arose Latin and Cyrillic.
Rich cultural heritage, advantageous geographical location make Greece one of the most visited countries in the world. It attracts tourists at the same time as recreational resorts, versatile historical and cultural tourism and pilgrimages to the shrines of the entire Christian world.
In Greece, which during the XX century. Remained a mono-ethnic country with a high degree of economic migration of its own population to Western Europe, America and Australia; by the late 1980s, there were no historical preconditions for the formation of a Ukrainian or any other diaspora. However, due to the improvement of the economic situation at the end of XX century. And the fall of the "Iron Curtain" there were significant changes in the ethnic composition of the Greek society: if in the early 90's of the last century in the Hellenic Republic the number of foreigners was about 2.5%, then according to the census of the population, which was held in March 2001 In the year, 762,191 foreigners lived in this country, accounting for 7% of the country's population.
Ukrainians are the fifth largest national community in Greece (after the Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians and Romanians). According to official statistics, the number of the Ukrainian minority is 19,785 people, which is about 3-5% of the total number of migrants or 0.18% of the population of Greece. However, in fact, official statistics do not correspond to the true situation, other sources refer to a figure from 30 thousand to 120 thousand people. An absolute majority is made up of emigrants of the so-called fourth wave (since the 1990s).
Important factors contributing to labor migration from Ukraine to Greece were the Greek mentality that was close to Ukrainian, the hospitality, the goodwill of the Greeks to those from the former USSR. Among other factors, it should be noted:
- the demand for cheap labor in the areas of tourism, care, care for children and elderly people, agriculture and construction;
- high, in comparison with Ukraine, wages;
- liberal in the early 90's. XX century. Greek legislation that allowed foreigners to obtain a job without formal documents in the absence of severe sanctions against employers;
- the presence in Ukraine of a significant Greek national minority, whose representatives had the opportunity to visit their relatives in Greece, and, having experience of stay and family ties in this country, facilitated the departure of compatriots to Greece for employment;
- the possibility of obtaining residence and work permits as a result of periodic legalization of foreigners by the Greek government;
- possibility of simplified registration of an invitation to visit Greece to distant relatives and acquaintances in Ukraine.
In 2001, at the request of the European Union, the Greek government began to standardize the immigration situation in the country. The Immigration Act was adopted, the main provisions of which comply with the common European requirements and criteria. Law No. 2910/2001 "On the Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the Greek Territory and Other Provisions" was the main legislative act regulating the rights of foreigners, including Greek, before they became citizens. In 2005, the Greek Parliament adopted a new version of the aforementioned law, which subsequently began to regulate the rights of migrant workers. In particular, it introduced a significant complication of the legalization procedure, a large number of bureaucratic obstacles on its way, a significant increase in state fees and the need to pass the state examination from the Greek language. Medical insurance for migrants who have legalized their status, their acquisition of education, including higher education, is carried out by foreigners on the same grounds as citizens of Greece.
The feature of the Ukrainian community in Greece is its gender composition - most of the migrants are women. Recently, however, there has been a tendency to reduce the number of newcomers. The reasons for reducing the influx of Ukrainians relate primarily to the crisis in the economy of Greece. Today, researchers note a small volume of "secondary migration".
Our compatriots living and working in Greece, for the most part, have secondary, secondary and higher education; Mostly married, live with or without their families, or with incomplete families. Labor migrants mainly come from the western regions of Ukraine (about 80%) and the central-eastern ones. In search of work, they settled in the largest cities of the country - Athens, Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki), Patri, and others. Mostly Ukrainians work in the field of providing services (cleaning, care for the sick, the elderly and children, work in hotels, cafes, restaurants, etc.), men - in construction.
For the most part, Ukrainian citizens were in Greece for the purpose of temporary earnings and did not link their further fate with this country. This determined the nature of the formation of the Ukrainian diaspora in Greece: Ukrainians did not have a specific area of ??compact residence, were scattered because they settled at work: from Macedonia in the north to Crete in the south, from the city of Thessaloniki in the east to the city of Yanina in the west. Some Ukrainian citizens came to Greece as family members (mixed marriages) and also lived dispersedly.
Ukrainians began to organize in 1995, when a Ukrainian page titled "Wind of Ukraine" was launched in the newspaper "Omonia", edited by Galina Maslyuk. Then a separate Ukrainian newspaper with the Greek application "Visnyk-Ageliaforos" began to appear, which began in November 1997. The activity of the print agency was positively evaluated not only by the Ukrainian and Greek public but also by the world Ukrainian diaspora.
In 1998, the staff of the editorial board of the Ukrainian newspaper initiated the creation of the first official Ukrainian organization called "Crane County". In the same year in Athens the first Easter liturgy was held in Ukrainian, and in the following, with the help of. Svyatoslav (Shevchuk) (the present head of the UGCC) and with the authoritative support of His Beatitude Patriarch Lubomyr Husar, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish was created. These events have become the cornerstone of the founding of the newest Ukrainian diaspora in Greece.
Among Ukrainians in Greece there are Orthodox. In Athens, the Orthodox Church of St. Panteleimon serves the Ukrainian Orthodox priest of. Mikhail Yurin. In another Orthodox church, 25 kilometers from Athens, from 2008 until 2013, Ukrainian priest of the UOC-KP Vasyl Lilo ruled.
In the structuring of the diaspora life of Ukrainians in Greece, the founding and setting up of Sunday schools is important. As experience shows, emigration is a rather complex and lengthy process. A particular public expression of the activity of the diaspora community is the establishment and opening of memorabilia associated with known persons or events in the history of Ukraine. Similar practices are observed in the latest diasporas in Italy, Spain, and similar examples are present in the activities of the Ukrainian community in Greece. In March 2006, a monument to Taras Shevchenko was installed in Athens. Remembrance of religious holidays, the maintenance of traditional folk customs and ceremonies, the holding of numerous cultural and artistic events, and the commemoration of prominent figures of Ukrainian culture are essential for the successful activity and consolidation of the diaspora community of Ukrainians in Greece.
A separate form of organizational life for Ukrainians in Greece was created in July 2001 at the Embassy of Ukraine in the Hellenic Republic, the Public Council of Ukrainians, which includes leaders of various Ukrainian cultural-national associations, representatives of the Greek cultural and scientific elite of Ukrainian descent, journalists from Ukraine . During the working sessions of the Council, issues of relevance to the cultural and social needs of Ukrainian associations in Greece are considered, joint activities and celebration of Ukrainian national holidays are planned.
Despite the fact that the structuring of the newest Ukrainian diaspora in Greece is only taking place, it is already possible to make certain generalizations. Ukrainian emigrants have made and continue to make important steps towards consolidation and activation of their activities; Develop all-Ukrainian-Greek ties; Promote the "Days of Ukrainian Culture and Education" in the country, thus informing the Greek community about the Ukrainian cause, establishing cooperation with various state (both Ukrainian and Greek) organizations, the Greek parliament and the government of the country, as well as with official international organizations.
The civilian life of Ukrainians in Greece is to some extent similar to other countries, where the emergence of a new diaspora, based primarily on labor migrants, is also taking place. These are Italy, Spain and Portugal, that is, the states to which a significant number of our compatriots arrived in search of work. The similarity is that for the Ukrainian community the national cultural dimensions are based, namely values, views, traditions, symbols, rituals, language and practices.
On the whole, the Ukrainian community is quite organically fit into Greek society, since even economic hardship, during which many hidden conflicts are aggravated, do not become an indicator of social tension between the Greeks and Ukrainians.
R. Kukharenko
The lord of the newspaper "Migration"
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