Migration aspects and issues in Greece

employment, yet it seems that so far relatively few have managed to start their own business. Given that setting up one's own business requires considerable know-how and a certain amount of financial resources, these low numbers are not surprising. Among these are not only language skills, but also the ability to understand the legal parameters and to find one's way through the German bureaucracy. Therefore, this process can take time.9 Targeted support for self-employed is limited. Also the existing counseling services are predominantly not tailored to the needs of immigrants since they are little used. We can also say that the self-employment of refugees and immigrants has never been priority for the authorities.

Areas of educational needs and potential for improvement of adult education

It is essential for people with migration background to acquire certain competences in order to become self-employed. First of all, the entrepreneurial skills needs to be developed through learning materials. Even reaching and benefiting from the existing consulting opportunities requires long bureaucratic steps so that it is important to develop self-learning systems. Given the digitalisation is the future of the learning, there is a need to offer e-learning platforms as they are not time consuming and anti-bureaucratic.

There are mentoring programmes for refugees and migrants on the small- scale but this local programmes are focused on the daily needs or language skills. There there is a need for the mentorship programmes with the specific aim to support people with migration backgrounds and refugees for developing their own business and improving entrepreneurship or selfemployment skills as well as guiding through the German bureaucracy.

The consulting for startups and self-employment are nice offers but they need to be fitted into the needs of the immigrants. Consulting offers specific to migrants are of great importance.

9 OECD (2017), Finding their Way, LABOUR MARKET INTEGRATION OF REFUGEES IN GERMANY

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content whic h reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the inform ation contained therein.

Immigrant entrepreneurship in Greece is a new phenomenon, still marginal but rapidly evolving. Restrictive immigration rules and labour market structures have confined the vast majority of migrants to paid employment. The increasing visibility of immigrant businesses, particularly in the principal cities of Athens and Thessaloniki, has lately been depicted in the media and reflects a reality that has become more and more common. However, immigrant entrepreneurship rarely features in official accounts, whether political or scholarly.

1. Migration statistics for Greece

According to the data and statistics provided by the Greek National Migration & Asylum Authority for June 2020, in total 537.892 migrants with a legal permanent residence permit are located in Greece. Out of this total number, the migrants that are members of migrant families already located in Greece are 168.015. Another very important element to highlight is that 63.3% of the migrants located in Greece come from Albania. In the following table, an analysis of this number according to the reason of migration is presented.

Reason of migration

Employment & job seeking

Family reunion

Studies

Other reasons (not defined) 71.320

192.320

1.820

272.522

Number of migrants

2. Institutional Support

In the aftermath of political and economic transitions in Eastern Europe, Greece experienced a rapid shift, receiving large numbers of undocumented migrants mostly from the Balkans and the former USSR, and predominantly from neighboring Albania. Placing excessive emphasis on policing and control, it failed to realistically acknowledge the new reality and kept the majority of migrants in a limbo, with no opportunity to access regular status. Any entrepreneurial attempt during the best part of the 1990s was thus impossible for the majority of migrants, unless it took placewithin the informal economy. The situation started to change in 1997, when the first regularization programme was initiated. By the end of the 1990s, immigrant-run shops were already mushrooming in Athens city centre, and the presence of immigrants as street vendors became noticeable in major cities. During the early 2000s, empirical research for the first time acknowledged the trend of migrants moving towards selfemployment and small entrepreneurship. The new legal framework for other immigrants takes

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content whic h reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the inform ation contained therein.

into account the issue of integration and includes provisions regulating their entrepreneurial activity.

A recent OECD survey highlighted the paradox of a country exhibiting “both a high rate of self-employment and a low rate of firm creation”, where “registering and licensing a business is complex and very time consuming” and “access to finance seems more difficult than in most other EU member states”. Not only does this pose additional difficulties for migrants, but also its legal specifications sometimes clash with immigration requirements. For instance, a business license is required for issuing or renewing a residence permit, while a residence permit is considered as a prerequisite for a business license.

3. Barriers encountered by migrants in accessing education and / or acquiring necessary skills that may help them improve their entrepreneurial skills.

For the case of Greece, according to the findings of an extended report conducted under the Horizon 2020 project “SIRIUS”10, the barriers encountered by migrants for accessing employment are more of a systemic nature and closely linked with the overall employment and unemployment tendencies and circumstances at national level. Specifically, two major tendencies regarding the migrants’ labor integration are highlighted:  The unfavorable landscape created by the overall high unemployment rate which increased from 10% to 20% between 2009 and 2018;  The tendency for refugees and asylum seekers to be used as cheap and unskilled labor without taking into account the specific skills they may have.

NGO representatives' testimonies show that any prospects of their beneficiaries is related to jobs in cleaning, rural or unskilled jobs in the tourism sector and the option of self-employment and the creation of an enterprise is rarely mentioned.

4. Educational/ Learning Barriers

Education plays an important role for the successful social integration of the migrants into the local societies. In fact, educational environments are the only ones providing direct coexistence of migrants and natives. According to a study conducted by Harokopio University of Greece11, the main barriers and challenges that migrants face when entering the education system of Greece are:

10 Civil society enablers and barriers, Dino Numerato, Karel Čada, Karina Hoření (Eds.) available at: https://www.siriusproject.eu/sites/default/files/attachments/Civil%20society%20enablers%20and%20barriers %20D4.1.pdf 11 Anastasia Chaliapa, Integration of Migrants in Greece available at: http://estia.hua.gr/file/lib/default/data/8286/theFile

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content whic h reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the inform ation contained therein.

 Language barriers: migrants do not speak or speak at a very low level the national language.  Another barrier, related to the aforementioned one, is the lack of initiatives from the

Greek educational system that will allow migrants retain and/or evolve their mother language.  Migrants lack of knowledge about the specific characteristics of the Greek educational system;  Migrants often have already been integrated into a different social, cultural, economic and political environment that is sustained by their partners;  The migrants’ personal experiences due to possible harsh and difficult life conditions, their parents’ insecurity as well as due to possible delinquency tendencies of their relatives and/or compatriots are reflected as a deterrent factor for their evolvement in education and in claiming better working conditions or establishing their own business12 .

5. Competencies Developed by Adult Educators and National

Initiatives

The findings support the view that the main initiatives expressed so far regarding the adult education of immigrants are in the majority, language capacity building oriented as the knowledge of the local language is a necessary tool for the refugees and migrants to improve their socio‐economic and professional status.

5.1. Language Lessons

As far as Greece is concerned, the influx of immigrants over the last decades has sharply increased the demands for adult language education. To address the needs of this population, special language training programs have been implemented by Ministries, local Municipalities, Universities and Vocational Training Centers; despite the many difficulties and shortcomings of these programs (Mattheoudakis; Rodakopoulos & Lily, 2010), this population has been offered a helping hand in their effort to become independent, self-sufficient and productive members of the society. For instance, Androulakis, Gkaintartzi, Kitsiou, and Tsioli (2017) report on two nationwide research projects (ELMEGO and MATHEME) implemented by the Greek Language and Multilingualism Laboratory of the University of Thessaly, Greece, from 2010 to 2015, which offered second language courses to adult immigrants. Namely, the ELMEGO project intended to plan and implement specialized courses in Greek language for immigrant parents with children attending compulsory education and the MATHEME project aimed to design and implement Greek courses for immigrant target-groups, who were immigrants from non-EU countries, unemployed, mothers, and immigrants with disabilities and illiterate immigrants. In addition to these efforts to tackle the issue of adult language

12 Mousourou L.M. (2006), Children of Migrants in the Greek Schools, Gutenberg publications, Athens

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content whic h reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the inform ation contained therein.

education, a number of NGOs and community-based organizations of volunteers have been offering Modern Greek language classes.

Regarding the problems that adult educators face, a study by Pathiaki and Simopoulos (2019), which explores the views and practices of volunteer teachers, shows that, while these teachers may not possess the appropriate know-how with regard to language teaching and often resort to traditional educational techniques, they succeed in creating a supportive learning environment, communicating effectively, and empowering their students, who are truly enthusiastic about attending the courses

5.2. Other supporting projects

There are measures worth mentioning for their potential to benefit migrant entrepreneurs.  IMMENSITY (2006-2008)13 is an EU project locally administered by the Region of Central Macedonia, seeking to promote immigrant entrepreneurship with a special focus on women.  The Hellenic Migration Policy Institute published an information leaflet that includes legal advice concerning self-employment and entrepreneurship in six languages (IMEPO, 2008).  ENTRYWAY- Entrepreneurship without Borders (2017-2019).14 A project which supports immigrants and third-country nationals that are willing to start their own businesses and legally reside in seven provinces of five European countries, including Greece  The ATHENA project15 which seeks to reduce the gap in integration outcomes between migrant men and migrant women by improving migrant women entrepreneurship (2021-2023) There are also many other programmes through the University of Patra, aimed to improve adult training in various areas, including new technologies, land workers education, health education, education for Roma people and immigrants. The university also has a centre for Intercultural Education (KEDEK), which provides Greek Language Courses to migrants and Erasmus Students16

6. Best practices of e-learning offer at national / EU / international level

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is an educational platform that offers professional courses on business, technologyrelated and creative fields in the format of video lessons.

13 Available at https://keep.eu/project-ext/187/SENSITIC%20II/ 14 https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/intpract/entryway--entrepreneurship-without-borders 15 https://www.eliamep.gr/en 16 http://www.upatras.gr/index/index/lang/en

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content whic h reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the inform ation contained therein.