Transnational Migrants' Views on Multiple Citizenship in Greece
HARRIS ATHANASIADES, ARCHONTIA MANTZARIDOU AND NIKOS MARANTZIDIS TRANSNATIONAL MIGRANTS' VIEWS ON MULTIPLE CITIZENSHIP IN GREECE INTRODUCTION In Greece, the issue of dual/multiple citizenship is discussed in terms of granting or not granting Greek citizenship to economic immigrants that entered the country during the 1990s. It is estimated that the aforementioned immigrants total 1,000,000 and constitute nine percent of the country's population.' For the sake of clarity and to ensure a thorough investigation, this chapter is confined to the three most important immigrant categories in terms of population and research interest. These are Albanians ( ca. 600,000), "Northern Epirotes" (Albanian citizens of Greek ethnicity, est. ca. 100,000) and "Pontians" (Greek ethnic citizens of the former USSR republics, est. ca. 120,000 ) These groups are important in terms of population because they constitute 90 percent of the total immigrant population of Greece (Bagavos, 2003; Kafetzis, 2004). At the same time, they are very important for the researcher since they constitute the more characteristic cases that reflect the three different approaches to granting citizenship adopted by the Greek state. On the one hand, we have the "Pontians", who, on the whole, acquired Greek citizenship and the full social and civil rights emanating from this. On the other hand, Albanians secure their stay with provisional permits, enjoying no civil rights and only the minimum of social ones. In between these two categories, "Northern Epirotes" hold a Homogeneis 2 Card ( certificate of Greek descent) that grants them a peculiar status of semi-citizenship devoid of civil rights but with enough (yet not full) social rights.' Members of these three communities enjoyed the same legal status in their country of origin: They were citizens with full social and civil rights.
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