THE GREEK WAY OF LIFE
THE NEW GREEKS
It’s taken several attempts at banning smoking in public places to
make any impact. Creative measures to tackle endemic tax-dodging
included using satellite images of northern Athens’ neighbourhoods to
locate undeclared swimming pools – in one swoop in 2011 they located
more than 16,000 of them (only 324 swimming pools had been declared
for tax purposes).
Protesting is ingrained in the national psyche, with trade-union
activism, mass demonstrations and rolling and often crippling strikes a
routine part of life. Police bear the brunt of the anti-establishment senti-
ment, which in recent years has escalated to the violent clashes sparked
by fringe anarchist groups that have made news footage around the
world (see p 730 ).
The New Greeks
In the 1990s, Greece changed from a nation of emigration to one of im-
migration. What was a largely homogenous society has since become
inadvertently multicultural. Greece is home to more than one million
migrants (legal, illegal and of indeterminate status), the majority are
economic migrants from Albania, the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Al-
most half have settled in Athens. Bulgarian women look after the elderly
in remote villages, Polish kitchen-hands work on the islands, Albanians
dominate the manual-labour force, Chinese businesses have sprung up
all over Greece, African hawkers fl og fake designer bags and CDs on the
streets and Pakistanis gather for weekend cricket matches in Athens car
parks.
Greece has also become the main illegal gateway to Europe, with peo-
ple streaming over the Turkish border or arriving on Greece’s remote
islands on rickety boats (many have drowned in the process). Greece’s in-
adequate and painfully slow asylum processes and immigration system
has drawn international criticism.
Economic migrants exist on the social fringe, but as they seek Greek
citizenship and try to integrate into mainstream society, community tol-
erance, prejudice, xenophobia and notions of Greek identity and nation-
ality are being tested. As with countries such as Germany, citizenship is
not a birthright, raising issues for the Greek-born children of migrants.
While there is still a long way to go before migrants are accepted
into the community, there is recognition that they keep the economy
going. Mixed marriages are becoming common, especially in rural ar-
eas where Eastern European brides fi ll the void left by Greek womenMore than five
million people of
Greek descent
live abroad in 140
countries, includ-
ing about three
million in the US
and Canada. Mel-
bourne, Australia,
is the third-
largest city
of Greeks
(300,000), after
Athens and
Thessaloniki.SPORTING PASSIONSIf the streets have gone quiet, you can’t get a taxi or you hear a mighty roar coming from
cafes across Greece, chances are there’s a football (soccer) game underway. Football is
Greece’s most popular spectator sport (followed by basketball) and inspires local pas-
sions and frequently unedifying fan hooliganism.
Football’s fi rst division is dominated by the big clubs of the league: Olympiakos of
Piraeus and arch rivals Panathinaikos of Athens, along with AEK Athens and Thessalo-
niki’s PAOK. Greece usually fi elds two teams in the European Champions League.
Olympiakos, AEK, Aris and PAOK have all won European championships.
Since Greece’s astounding football victory in the 2004 European Cup, it has re-
mained in the shadow of Europe’s soccer heavyweights. A major shake-up was expected
after Greek football was rocked by a match-fi xing scandal that led to charges against
high-profi le offi cials and a two-week halt to all football in June 2011.
Greece basketball is in better shape, with Panathinaikos fi rmly one of the powerhouses
of European basketball, winning its sixth Euroleague title in 2011.