THE GREEK WAY OF LIFESOCIAL & FAMILY LIFEvibrant street life and relaxed dining scene. People of all ages live it up
at nightclubs, while children stay up late socialising with their parents
or playing nearby.
The vast majority of Greek businesses are small, often family-run
operations. Parents strive to provide homes for their children when
they get married, with many families building apartments for each
child above their own (thus the number of unfi nished buildings
you see).
Extended family plays an important role in daily life, with grandpar-
ents often looking after grandchildren while parents work or socialise.
The trade-off is that children look after their elderly parents, rather than
consign them to nursing homes, though foreign women are brought in
to look after elderly parents in villages.
Greeks retain strong regional identities and affi liations, despite the
majority having left their ancestral villages for cities or abroad. Even
the country’s remotest villages are bustling during holidays, elections
and other excuses for homecomings. One of the fi rst questions Greeks
will ask a stranger is what part of Greece they come from.
Greeks attach great importance to education, sending children to
after-school frontistiria (tutoring schools) for languages and university
entrance subjects to make up for the perceived inadequacy of the state
education system.
Debunking the
myth of the lazy
Greek, Eurobaro-
meter research
suggests Greeks
actually work
longer hours than
their European
counterparts.
Greek wages
and salaries are
amongst Europe’s
lowest and living
costs amongst
the highest.GENERATION – €700Greece’s disaff ected and disillusioned youth looks set to bear the brunt of years of over-
spending and economic mismanagement by previous generations.
Dubbed the €700 generation – after the average net monthly starting salary for
graduates – many Greeks in their 20s and early 30s feel cheated out of a future, and
accuse the country’s politicians of selling out their dreams.
Despite talk of opportunity in crisis, the country’s fi nancial distress has wiped the opti-
mism and sense of possibility engendered by the resounding success of the Athens 2004
Olympic Games and Greece’s euphoric European Cup football triumph that same year.
Overeducated and underemployed middle-class youth face less jobs, lower pay and
declining living standards.
While some blame ‘spoilt’ young people and Greek society for breeding an entitle-
ment culture where graduates lack initiative and refuse demeaning jobs, the cafes teem-
ing with seemingly carefree youth belie some fundamental systemic failings.
The crisis has exacerbated Greece’s chronic youth unemployment problem, which by
April 2011 was close to 40% for 16 to 24-year olds and 22.3% for 25 to 34-year-olds.
Universities have long been seen as out of touch with labour market needs, produc-
ing graduates in already saturated fi elds (such as doctors and lawyers). Greece has the
highest number of students in the EU studying abroad – and the highest graduate un-
employment in Europe. The brain drain of recent years is on the rise as more graduates
are leaving Greece.
Young people remain highly dependent on family – about half of women under 27 and
half of men under 30 years still live with their parents.
A 2008 survey (conducted for the Greek General Confederation of Labour) found
that about a quarter of the working population was part of the €700 generation – nearly
70% of those aged 18 to 34. Many young people work for even less in part-time jobs with
no social-security benefi ts.
Many young people have become increasingly radicalised and involved in demonstra-
tions that have turned violent (see p 730 ). On a more lighthearted note, the phenom-
enon even inspired a television sit-com, though by the time it went into production the
show was renamed the €592 Generation, as austerity measures cut the minimum youth
wage further to boost youth employment.