He is a foreigner, or “xenos,” the Greek noun that is the root of the word xenophobia. The government, correctly judging the country’s rising anti-immigrant sentiment, wants him and his kind to go home. The poor, dispossessed and oppressed of Asia, the Middle East and Africa are walking in a never-ending tide toward Europe. Ninety percent of them enter through Greece’s border with Turkey. They are driven by visions of prosperity in Britain, Germany, France and Scandinavia, where they believe they will quickly earn the 10,000 dollars or so, plus interest, needed to repay the trafficking gangs which cynically exploit their dreams. Once in Greece, most find themselves trapped, incapable of proceeding westward, and, having discarded their passports in an attempt to claim political asylum, unable to return home. Greece is being swamped and cannot withstand this burden, says Christos Papoutsis, the immaculately suited and booted Socialist who runs the Ministry of Citizens’ Protection.
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The man who sells horta on my school run is called Asif. He comes from Lahore. He’s been in Greece for three years. “I want to go home,” he told me. “It’s better in Pakistan.”
continue on... Malcolm Brabant @ ekathimerini.com
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