The Greeks have a word for it; Xenophobia rears up as Athens tightens belt

[pampango]

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Ancient Greece gave the world the word "xenophobia." Modern Greece is providing examples of it. Hamad Amiri, a young Afghan immigrant, arrived to work at his brother's cell phone store in Athens on a recent morning only to find that someone had gummed up the lock overnight. Scrawled in yellow paint on the shop's metal screen were the words "Foreigners Out," accompanied by the insignia of a far-right organization known as Golden Dawn. Amiri's experiences are the result of a swelling tide of anti-immigrant feeling in this debt-plagued Mediterranean country.

Now, as Greece enters a period of painful economic retrenchment to alleviate its staggering debt crisis, (Tzanetos) Antypas (the head of Praksis, a rights organization) fears the backlash against the country's newest arrivals will only get worse. "You can see it in the faces of Greeks; there's a lot of uncertainty. They don't feel secure in the whole environment, and of course they want to put the blame on someone," Antypas said. "And who will be easy to blame? The immigrants."

Athens and its environs, home to nearly one-third of all of Greece's inhabitants, have witnessed a number of clashes in recent months pitting immigrants and their defenders against right-wing extremists. Members of the ultra-right Golden Dawn have tagged foreign-owned businesses with anti-immigrant graffiti, although in some cases their opponents have sneaked in behind them and, with a few judicious strokes of extra paint, altered "Golden Dawn" in Greek to read, nonsensically, "Golden Eggs."

The latest target of anti-immigrant ire is a government proposal to offer citizenship to children of non-Greek parents if they meet such requirements as having spent several years in Greek schools. Rights groups laud the ruling Socialists for working to establish a coherent legal framework for immigrants. Prime Minister George Papandreou said the bill, put forward last month, reflected Greek values of democracy and equality. Greek culture, he said, was threatened more by the hours spent by children in front of the TV every day than by the presence of immigrants.

Read more: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/fyi/the-greeks-have-a-word-for-it-88716972.html

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I doubt that immigrants had much to do with the Greek government cooking its books to qualify to enter the Eurozone, but it seems to be easier for some (particularly right wing extremists) to take out frustrations on them rather than on the powerful elites and politicians who were responsible.

On the positive side, it sounds like the Socialist government is acting to protect immigrants in the belief that reflects "Greek values of democracy and equality".

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[axollot]

3. LOL you sound like my S.O.! He always says that after a lame-ish joke lol nt

[axollot]

2. I married into a Greek family when I had my 2 boys in Australia -

This does not surprise me at all. I was basically vetted before accepted into the family and my SIL (married to their other son) has never been accepted after 25yrs with them.
My ex-in-laws are not quite so bad & only my MIL is Greek so it's her side of the family I'm referring to, irony I know as they migrated to Australia! (I'm still very close with my MIL and she spent a month in our home here in the US last year w/my S.O. and 6yr old who calls her Nana since her brothers do, she treats her like a grandchild as well which is nice) but I heard many xenophobic BS during the holidays or whenever the family got together - which was often.

They said the Greeks do not like non-Greeks there, just tourists. Part of that is their lack of fresh water (which mostly goes to the tourists in Athen's hotels). This family is worth multi-millions - trust me money doesn't buy happiness. I walked away from my marriage for other reasons, refusing to take anything and became a poor single Mum for a long, long time. (The boys are now 20 & 16).

Sad it will get worse before it gets better as this is going on all over the world. Australia is not known as being all too welcoming to Middle-East immigrants either.

Cheers
Sandy

[Blue_Tires]

4. it's a common problem

for centuries, in times of deep financial turmoil, scapegoating an 'outsider' group is a natural reaction...

[pampango]

5. Quite true. In spite of some progress we have made, the tendency to scapegoat the "outsiders"

remains. Much effort (and some progress) has been made to not exclude from society, or scapegoat in bad times, other races, genders and sexual orientations, but the age old custom of blaming the "outsider" seems to remain largely untouched.

[Igel]

6. I'm fairly sure "xenophobia" isn't all that old a word.

We--by that I mean "Europeans and Americans"--coined a lot of words based on Greek roots. A lot on Latin roots. (There are even some hybrids.)

My dictionary says early 1900s. German.

"Germans gave the world the Greek word 'xenophobia'. Modern Greece is providing examples of it." Somehow that doesn't have the same xing. Uh. Zing.

Then again, "Germans gave the world the Greek word 'xenophobia'" could, by itself, start an interesting retrospective article.

[Rage Inc.]

7. How do you say "Tea Party" in Greek?

:evilgrin: