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Greece plans to regularize the status of 300,000 immigrants to deal with growing labor market shortages, highlighting the difficulties faced by the right-wing government as it tries to curb illegal immigration.
Immigration Minister Dimitris Keridis said on Tuesday the plan was aimed at easing severe shortages in the agriculture, tourism and construction sectors, including for immigrants with expired residence permits or who were undocumented.
Kyridis believes that the initiative will not encourage more irregular migration, but will “increase public revenue through employment taxes and contributions and help address serious shortages in certain sectors”.
The plan was discussed at a national security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday but has yet to be formalized.
Migrant flows to Greece more than tripled in August compared to the same month in 2022, reaching 715 people. A further 7,000 people have arrived on the Greek islands since early September, pushing immigration facilities to capacity.
The government, which has been criticized for its harsh treatment of immigrants, has promised to be “fair but tough”. Keridis told the Financial Times that Greek authorities would continue to “work hard to secure the borders, but…”. . Providing very humane conditions for asylum seekers”.
While it struggles to crack down on irregular migration, Greece is also feeling the pinch of labor shortages, particularly in the agricultural sector.
The labor center in Heraklion, Crete, warned last month that many vintners were seeing “the fruits of their labor wasted” because they were unable to complete the harvest without extra help. Other crops have also been affected, with the Ierapetra Agricultural Association saying that in several rural areas of Crete “the situation is extremely difficult” and many producers have abandoned crops because they cannot cope alone.
Agriculture Minister Lefteris Avgenakis said foreign worker programs with countries such as Egypt and Bangladesh are often delayed by bureaucratic hurdles, so migrants already in the country must be hired. The minister said many land workers in Greece have been working in the gray economy, causing “insecurity and causing social, health and financial problems”.
By regulating their status, Avgenakis said, “we will provide breathing space for those employed and the employers who employ them, without creating pressure to engage in illegal conduct.”
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni faces a similar dilemma as she tries to fulfill her election promise to crack down on illegal immigration even as employers in many industries complain of worker shortages.
Rome has regularized the status of some undocumented workers in the past, but Meloni has so far avoided that step, focusing instead on increasing the number of work permits issued to citizens of non-EU countries.
In July, the Italian government announced that it would issue 425,000 such licenses by 2025, significantly higher than the fewer than 31,000 licenses issued in the years before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in an effort to curb a surge in the number of people arriving on Italian shores, Meloni’s government has pledged to build new facilities to detain illegal immigrants and require bail of nearly 5,000 euros.
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