Foreign nationals currently living and working in Greece are estimated at between 1 million and 1.07 million, according to mid-October figures announced by the Interior Ministry on Tuesday on the occasion of World Migrants Day.
Non-EU foreign nationals with residence permits in Greece number 481,501. A total of roughly 370,000 illegal immigrants took advantage of a first legalization scheme in 1998, while an additional 350,000 acquired legal status in 2001, the government said.
Meanwhile, many former legal residents from Eastern Europe, primarily Polish nationals, left the country for other EU states upon their home country's accession to the European Union. Based on the EU-established Migrant Integration Policy Index in 2004, the job market in Greece is regarded as uncertain for migrants.
Roughly 63 percent of the immigrants come from non-EU state Albania, corresponding to 303,225 legal permits; followed by recent EU member-state Bulgaria (27,182); Ukraine (19,005); EU state Romania (15,884); Georgia (12,990); Pakistan (12,126); Russia (10,704) and Egypt (10,356).
The gradual opening of the European job market to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals -- the two countries became EU members in 2007 --is expected to reduce the number of migrants from former eastern European countries. On the contrary, the continuous attempts of mostly Third World foreign nationals from Asia and the sub-Saharan Africa to reach the country is expected to raise their numbers in the illegal job market, as their legalization appears impossible under current conditions, a relevant report stated.
The overwhelming majority of migrants are young people aged between 19 and 40, constituting 56 percent (268,324) of legal migrants, while 17 percent are second generation children of migrants (80,860).
Regarding the education of non-EU foreign nationals, 13.4 percent are tertiary education graduates, 59.3 percent have secondary education, 16.2 percent have finished grade school and 9.2 percent have little or no schooling.
Roughly 5 percent of legal migrants are home owners and their average family income is 1,550 euros, 28 percent lower than the average Greek family income. About 20.5 percent of their income is spent on food and non-alcoholic beverages; 19.6 percent on housing, water bills, fuel, electricity, and 10.6 percent on transportation.
Roughly 32 percent of all legal migrants work in construction;20.5 percent are females employed as household help; 12.8 percent are employed in manufacturing; 11.6 percent in commerce and repair work; 8.2 percent in hospitality and restaurants, as well as 6percent in the agriculture.
Source: Xinhua
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