Immigration Code: Too little, too late

Press Release

After several months of waiting and repeated postponements, the Greek Government is currently in the final stages of submitting the Bill for the ‘New Code of Immigration and Social Integration’ to the Parliament. This legislative initiative on the one hand attempts the codification of the existing fragmented legislation in the field of legal immigration, while an effort is also being made to simplify the procedures of issuing permits for immigrants that reside legally in Greece. On the other hand, however, the initiative comes too late and lacks certain important aspects, as it does not include any provisions for the return to legality of those who have lost their legal status due to the crisis, it does not engage systematically with issues of integration, by circumventing the granting of Greek nationality, and in short does not avoid the usual path of dealing with immigration in a less than bold way. 

In particular, the suggested Code promotes solutions to certain chronic impediments of the Greek immigration system, such as:

• acceleration, which is achieved through following up on the examination of the request for residence permit, if police authorities do not reply to a question within a defined deadline for reasons of public order;
• prolonging the time of validity of regular residence permits from two to three years;
• facilitationof granting residence permits to people ‘residing for a long time’;
• changesregarding the procedure of family reunion;
• simplificationof the long-term residence permit for second-generation immigrants; thereby, an important part of second-generation immigrant children will be able to secure their legal stay in Greece on a solid basis as soon as they come of age.

This last provision, in particular, loses its positive orientation when seen in the broader political setting: a real and substantial integration policy, which would result in obtaining the Greek nationality, turns into a compromising half-measure oscillating between the undisputed need for the second generation to have a substantial institutional status and the phobic ethnocentric mentality of the majority of the Council of State. The result is the promotion of an institution cut off from any immediate perspective of acquiring the Greek nationality, using the condescending philanthropist notion of ‘you will never become Greek…’ as pretext. 

The legislative initiative in question has come late and is being devoured by the consequences of its unjustified delay: the non-substantial provision to bring back to legality immigrants who under the pressure of the economic crisis are not in a position to renew their permits is a typical example. The number of registered legal immigrants has been reduced, from more than 600,000 at the end of 2009, by a few tens of thousands today, while the number of those who remain in a state of limbo and insecurity has risen. What happened to all those people? Have they all gone? Of course not. It would be extremely naïve to believe that these people have taken the road of migration or return. They have simply lost their legal status by being unable to fulfill income and other conditions, in which they are no different nowadays from the majority of Greek nationals.

This critical population is added to the broader total of the immigrants who reside in the country for years, have transferred the center of both their livelihoods and their social life in Greece, but lack institutional status. Today, with the legislative initiative in question, the Greek government is telling them, once again, that they are destined to be ignored.

• A responsible, rule-of-law State does not use the possibility of ensuring a long stay for immigrants and the possibility of obtaining nationality in ‘either/or’ terms. These two options have to be provided together, so that the persons that fulfill the conditions may be in a position to choose.
• A responsible, rule-of-law State legislates with a view to what is good for the majority, and is not guided by any anti-immigration reflexes of the Government’s potential electorate.
• A responsible, rule-of-law State, which is at the same time a destination of immigrants, does not push back the immigrant population’s need for integration. By doing so, it prevents the construction of social security and peace.

Τhis particular legislation needs crucial alterations so that one may be finally able to say: ‘better late than never’.

More information: 2130264975 – Email: info@hlhr.gr