The
FINANCIAL
Government
crisis, economy at the edge of default, no jobs, rallies and strikes almost
every week: This is autumn 2011 in Greece.
This
is the country where a large majority of Georgian job seekers used to migrate
to. A lot of them have had to return today, as having once escaped unemployment
in their own country, they were trapped by it again in another.
Data
of the Georgian National Bank shows that Greece is in second place in terms of
the amount of money transfers to Georgia (it comes after the Russian
Federation). About 40 million USD were transferred from Greece during the first
half of 2011.
Labour
migration to Greece started in the 90s. It was the first stream of Georgian
labour migrants who escaped from the economic stagnation of the country and
unemployment. Other popular destinations for job migrants from Georgia were
Turkey and Russia.
Global
research company Gallup estimated that the number of Georgians working
illegally in Russia ranged from 333,000 to 1 million in 2006. About one in
twelve Georgians (8%) told Gallup that someone in their household was working
abroad temporarily -- and of those, 41% said that the person worked in Russia.
In the same period MOSCOW deported several hundred Georgians and shut down a
number of businesses run by Georgians in Russia. That increased the number of
Georgian job migrants in Greece.
According
to the country profile of International Organization of Migration, the number
of Georgian migrants in Greece in 2007 was 13,791. Some of that first flow of
legal migrants even have citizenship now, but this factor didn’t prevent them
coming back after the crisis erupted.
Georgian
society has historic relations with Greeks. Greeks settled in Western Georgia
over the centuries. Today the Greek Diaspora in Georgia is estimated at between
15,000 and 20,000 people down from about 100,000 in 1989. The community has
dwindled due to the large wave of repatriation to Greece. Most of the Greeks
fled Abkhazia during and after the 1992-1993 war.
Lela
Sikharulidze, 26, left Athens several months ago with her husband and son who
are citizens of Greece. The family had arranged its life well, the husband had
a permanent job in a store house of Adidas. Her mother in law had been there
for many years already. To cut it short Greece had become their second home,
until the rallies erupted.
The
labour market became like a battlefield in the country. Lela says that even the
attitude of the natives was a little bit negative towards foreigners who got
employment there.
Most
of the Georgians working in Greece have kind of altruistic reasons, sending
money back home monthly because they have parents or children here to support.
With simple economic calculations, they try to spend less on the ground and
help their families instead. “I appeared
to have more expenses than income, so I left,” recalls Lika, another ex-migrant
in Greece, who used to work in Thessaloniki at a summer tavern. When the season
ended, she had no hope of finding anything else so she had to return back three
months ago.
This
year has definitely been difficult for Greece. The country’s public sector
spending has grown, while revenue has fallen, then economic activity slowed and
unemployment rose up to 18.4 percent. This brought the fiscal situation to a
critical margin.
The
International Monetary Fund and Eurozone leaders made up their mind to allot
the sixth tranche of 110 billion EUR, but first of all, the country must have
met the conditions of the financial assistance. This assistance has another
side, the people’s. They are against wage and pension reductions and the taxes
growth which the new government says is inevitable. This circumstance has
affected the life of Georgian migrants, almost proportionally, because their
employers have started to avoid extra expenses.
Here
are several examples: Labour migrants normally get their jobs in Athens at a
special office for job seekers from Georgia and other countries. After paying
100-200 EUR (depending on the salary they will have) they find employment. Now
due to the crisis, the tendency has changed. Since the families who hire
domestic workers also have to pay, they try to use personal contacts instead.
The families also bring elderly people together or two or three relatives are
given to one person for care. This is how locals save money now.
Tsitsino
calls herself Copela in conversation. This word is for a domestic worker woman
in Greek. She has been living and working illegally in Athens for six years
already. “…when the crisis started my employers asked me to look after two
elderly people of one family. As they are relatives the family decided to save
the money. They paid me 800 EUR for one person, but now I get 900 EUR for two
of them”. The condition isn’t profitable
at first glance, but the primary reason to stay for Tsitsino is the good
relations she has with the family and also that there aren’t as many jobs in
the country as there used to.
Although
the situation is difficult for most Georgians there, some of them still feel
comfortable in the ancient European country. Giorgi Bezhanishvili, 26, is a
young Georgian doctorate degree researcher in Thessaloniki. The debt crisis of
the Greek Government didn’t have a direct impact on him as he is an EU
scholarship winner but he says that finding a job has become difficult for
others in the town, on top of which the prices are getting higher.
He
knows from direct observation that these circumstances have had a big impact on
Georgian migrants. Still he feels optimistic and doesn’t think that he chose
the wrong time to go to Greece to study. “The rallies sometimes make problems
with public transport but it isn’t a permanent problem. In general I feel
absolutely safe here. I think that the Greeks have preserved their old Hellenic
spirit and I’m sure they will be able to change the situation into a positive
one,” he hopes.
Greece
isn’t the only back runner by its economics in the Eurozone. Rome and Athens
seem to not only have their past and history in common but present problems as
well. Some Georgians from Greece also decided to move to Italy but almost
simultaneously with Greece, Italy had to change its cabinet as it started to
face the debt crisis as well.
Asmat,
a woman from Georgia, was an illegal migrant in the Italian town Porto Gruari
until the national economic problems started. Three weeks ago she returned back
home. Asmat says many Georgians are in search of jobs there, packed in rented
shelters spending days without any hope of finding something. She thinks that
coming back home was a good choice given the situation.
As
it seems, Italians have come up with their own ways of saving money in terms of
the economic crisis. For example, they have started to take their elderly
parents out of their retirement homes and look after their elderly themselves,
therefore many Georgians have lost their jobs as many Georgian women in Italy
as well as in Greece are either housekeepers or looking after elderly people.
As for the men, most of them work at factories. The average salary in both
countries is almost the same. It is 1,371 EUR in Greece and 1,457 EUR in Italy
(As for Georgian workers it varies from 700-800).
Compared
to Greece, Italy has always been more loyal to migrants. For example, in 2003
700,000 immigrants were given legal recognition in Italy. This was the second
largest amount after the US in the 80s. The country has numerous aid centres
where migrants from all over the world can get food, clothes and other
facilities. This makes it easier for them to endure the crisis.
Inga
Kovziridze is a labour migrant in Naples who regularly visits such a centre. As
the supermarket prices have become high recently, she gets food and medicine
there. Her monthly income is 600 EUR which Inga has to save and sends to her
husband and son in Georgia. “Prices are high and the number of foreign job
seekers is huge. There are many Georgians, Ukrainian s, Romanians, Bulgarians
and Africans here and they all need jobs,” she said. Inga appreciates the
effort made by the Government to help all of them.
Not just the facilities but also the law makes
Italy a good place for labour migrants. The Italian Government issues a Stream
decree every year, which is a Legal Act for non EU citizens to enter the
country for legal working reasons.
The
country is in third place in the list of money transfers to Georgia according
to NBG. Italy became a popular destination for labour migrants of Georgia a bit
later than Greece, in the first half of the 2000s, when Georgia’s unemployment
rate was about 12-13 percent. In 2007 811 legal Georgian migrants were recorded
in Italy.
Economic
expert Nodar Khaduri doesn’t think the crisis in Italy and Greece is in any way
connected with the flow of migrants in those countries. He says that the main
problem is that the Eurozone has a common monetary policy but at the same time
independent budget and they didn’t have coordinated work among themselves.
Also
he is sure the crisis isn’t caused by Greece. “What happens in Greece and Italy
is the logical result of their policy. Those countries were spending more than
they actually had, so they were borrowing more money. Italy and France just
stretched their budgets further than they could afford.”
Comments
Post a Comment