Aim of this study is to provide an analysis of immigration into Greece, underlying the main issues that are to be tackled by the Greek state with a view to drawing up an urgently needed comprehensive and efficient immigration framework. The first section presents the development of alien immigration in modern Greece and the main socio-economic features of the country's u-turn from the period of sending to the one of receiving economic migrants. In the second section there are analyzed the three major phases of Greek immigration policy and law from 1991-2002: Greece in 1991, by its first draconian Immigration Law number 1975, showed the first signs of awakening from a long state of hibernation. The failure though of this first effort of controlling, in effect preventing, alien immigration led to the second phase of 1998-2001 when the first, also largely unsuccessful, programme of regularization of irregular immigrants was launched. The third major phase of Greek immigration policy started upon the entry into force of the new Immigration Law 2910/2001 which has been a delayed and elliptic attempt to move towards a modern immigration policy framework, introducing at the same time a second programme of irregular immigrants' regularization. The second section of the study is complemented by an overview of the Greek attempts to control irregular immigration which has been one of the main preoccupations of Greek authorities and has topped their agendas with EU and Balkan states alike. The main tools against irregular immigration used by Greece so far have been regional inter-state agreements, an idea that has not produced the results wished for, since it has not been coupled by the necessary inter-state co-operation on substantive issues pertaining to the root causes of migration. Finally the third section focuses on some major issues regarding the peripheral, marginalized socio-political position of alien immigrant population and its prospects in modern Greek society. These are serious problems requiring the urgent action both of the state and the civil society. The study concludes by pinpointing the basic crucial themes on which a new comprehensive Greek immigration policy should be based, breaking the constraints of the archaic logic of immigration control that has so far led to a complete dead end, concurrently adopting a holistic thesis of action both regionally and on the European level.

This open access book discusses how, and to what extent, the legal and institutional regimes and the socio-cultural environments of a range of European countries (the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK), in the framework of EU laws and policies, have a beneficial or negative impact on the effective capacity of these countries to integrate migrants, refugees and asylum seekers into their labour markets. The analysis builds on the understanding of socio-cultural, institutional and legal factors as “barriers” or “enablers”; elements that may facilitate or obstruct the integration processes. The book examines the two dimensions of integration being access to the labour market (which, translated into a rights language means the right to work) with its corollaries (recognition of qualifications, vocational training, etc.), and non-discriminatory working conditions (which, translated into a rights language means right to both formal and substantial equality) and its corollaries of benefits and duties deriving from joining the labour market. It thereby offers a novel approach to labour market integration and migration/asylum issues given its focus on legal aspects, which includes most recent policy changes and legal decisions (including litigation cases). The robust, evidence-based and comparative research illustrated in the book provides academics and students, but also practitioners and policy makers, with up to date knowledge that will likely impact positively on policy changes needed to better address integration conundrums.

Conventional thinking maintains that people can belong to only one society and can be loyal to only one nation-state. In a world with rising rates of trans-national migration, however, the possibility of participation, belonging, and loyalty to more than one state is ever more evident. This has led to a rethinking of the notion of nation-based citizenship and increased tolerance toward holding citizenship in more than one country. In practice, over half of the world’s nation-states currently recognize some form of dual citizenship or dual nationality. This book focuses on clarifying and comparing how the rules of acquisition, maintenance, and revocation of dual citizenship have been modified and justified in eight states associated with the European Union: Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The main question is: How have the rules of attribution, loss and/or acquisition of dual citizenship been modified and justified in these eight states? Viewed in the context of international covenants, legislation regarding dual and multiple citizenship is analyzed in terms of how it is made tangible in juridical, social, cultural, and educational domains.

At a time when issues concerning migration and the formation of diasporic communities have come to be critical for all European legal systems, this volume reflects, discusses and analyzes the questions raised by diasporas who have established themselves in Europe over more than fifty years of immigration and the challenges faced by legal systems in the light of continued migration. Contributors from a broad range of backgrounds address prominent issues ranging from legal pluralism among minorities, pressures on EU accession states, irregular migration, state control of family reunification and formation in light of human rights laws, challenges for citizenship and nationality laws and the implementation of visa rules and juxtaposed control zones. Besides the EU as a supranational legal order, the book contains discussion of conditions in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Greece, Turkey and Lithuania. This volume accompanies The Challenge of Asylum to Legal Systems and is the second book to emerge from the W.G Hart Legal Workshop held in 2004 at London's Institute for Advanced Legal Studies.

Providing an interdisciplinary look at Greece’s Muslim minority and migrant communities, this book provides an exhaustive legal analysis of regulations and broadens our understanding of the political management of ethnic and religious otherness, while placing these phenomena in historical context.

Challenging traditional approaches to migration, which puts migrants in narrow categories (legal and illegal, newcomer and settler), 'Transit Migration' shows that migrants and refugees live in transit for years, a stage in the migration course profoundly affecting destination countries and the migrants themselves.