Friday, April 15, 2016
Assembly G (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
Two different flows are hypothesized to characterize migration into Greece and from Greece throughout the European Union: an “expansion” flow and an “austerity” flow. The structural social transformation occurring when neoliberal globalization is in the ascendant and global trade and capital flows are expanding encourages migration from high unemployment Greece to the demographically ageing economies of Northern Europe. This includes professionals, executives, highly skilled experts, and individuals from the increasingly marginalized ‘precariat’ driven from austerity-riven Greece. The structural social transformation occurring when neoliberal globalization is in crisis, when neoliberal, neoconservative globalization is not in ascendancy, when socio-economic and political institutions are in disarray and when trust in institutions is at an all time low spurs both economic and refugee migration from the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Northern Africa. Greece is a preeminent receiving and transit country for migrant flows destined for Northern Europe. Both migration flows are reinforced through the time-space compressing improved communication and transportation networks often simplistically cited as the core component of globalization. This paper explores, describes, and examines the resilience of EU government institutions, labor markets, and ethnic communities migrant reception contexts and strategies. Similarly, we assess rigidities in the Greek government institutional bureaucracies, labor markets, and communities that doom all attempts to incorporate migrants and refugees.
