

Greek politics

Immigrants as scapegoats


See article

Readers' comments





In the long run

As usual with all its articles on immigration, this story is completely one-sided. As far as TE is concerned, immigration is all well and good, there is no downside whatsoever to immigration. TE also believes it is the right of every person on this earth to move wherever they want, live wherever they want, laws of immigration be damned. God forbid if anyone points out that large numbers of immigrants disrupt social cohesion and worsens unemployment -- they're immediately called out as xenophobic and racist.

As far as TE is concerned, immigration is as simple as black and white. There are but 2 points of view on this matter, either you are an immigrantion champion who welcomes any and all comers with open arms and believe they are the solution to all of your country's problems(which is the only correct view per TE), or you are a hateful hysterical nativist looking for a scapegoat.

Mo Brown


NikosChangez68 in reply to agitator2

Agitator2, Turkey is a homogenous race with just over 25% of the population made of Kurds and other ethnicities. It is regarded as a cordial and non-racist country, where it has systematically wiped out various ethnic minorities through well-planned pogroms. For many years Turkey has exercised democratic principles with an ever presence of the military coup d'état; allowed freedom of speech in the media, where many of its journalists write from the luxury of a jail cell; sustained human rights and allowed ethnic minorities, like the Armenians, the Kurds, the Greeks and the Jews, just to name a few to exercise their religions and cultures without being persecuted. Finally, Turkey has never been an aggressor but a defender of its sovereignty by illegally invading the likes of Cyprus in 1974 and this act of aggression has been condemned by several United Nations Resolutions and by the Security Council or quite recently the systematic bombing of northern Iraq to rid the large presence of Kurds. Agitator2 please recall the billions of dollars of aid that were poured in by the US to save Turkey’s ailing economic woes during the last two decades. Luckily the US helped out economically as the dream of the neo-Ottoman Empire started to fade!

The Propagandist


That's because the Economist represents a corporatist, globalist agenda, for which the utilisation of cheap labour provided by immigrants is absolutely necessary. The breakdown of social cohesion is just an added bonus.










L6QjhvJGVk in reply to mr_Arcadian


- Tax evasion is huge.
- Income inequality is very high.
- The rich keep their money outside Greece.
- Consequently, they are effectively creating jobs elsewhere.
- Asian investment is low - racism is a huge factor.
- Paradoxically, Asian investment in Turkey is growing.
- The public sector is bloated and inefficient.
- Etc., etc.











In difficult economic times people become ultra-nationalistic and radicalized who in turn create stereotypes and scapegoats for their country’s failures and woes. Europe and Greece is once again experiencing similar economic obscurity as it did in the late 1930s when it was embroiled in a depression and a Second World War.

Many people at the time found refuge in these extreme fascist parties. This is once again evident today in many European countries including France, Holland, Hungary and in Greece. If the Euro-zone were to capitulate, then these extreme fascist right-wing parties would flourish.

In the last Greek elections held in June, saw the Golden Dawn a Neo-Nazi right-wing party obtain close to 7% of the electoral vote which secured 18 seats in the Greek Parliament. The irony is that the majority of the Greek people in the Second World War stood up to the Fascist regimes at a great cost.

Many thousands of Greek people, British, Australian, New Zealand soldiers and Jewish people lost their lives in Thessaloniki, in Distomo, in Kalavryta and Crete at the hands of the Nazis during their occupation of Greece in the Second World War.

It is definitely an injustice to all those men, women and children who stood up to fascism and lost their lives trying to liberate Greece from the totalitarian regimes. It is downright disgraceful and disrespectful to Greece’s history and democratic principles that unhistorical and unethical people like the ones in the Golden Dawn party have embraced an ideology their grandparents once fought against.






Damn Dirty Ape

The greeks should look only to themselves for the problems that they are suffering. They should focus on liberalizing labor laws and broadening the tax base. If I were in control, I would default on all of the debt and then pay the public sector only what I could raise in taxes.



shaun39 in reply to mvr36

Of course it's the euro...






http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.... ).





Racism has long been a problem in Greece. From racist attacks against immigrants to attacks on Macedonia and Turkey there is a very very ugly side to Greeks that is unfortunately being revealed by the economic crisis. Clinging to a fake identity created by a vapid Lord Byron requires regular cash infusions from Northern Europe. When the buck stops, Golden Dawn rampages.


Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
Writing worth reading: Dark matter
Babbage March 15th, 14:43
Bits and mortar: Babbage visits Ada's
Babbage March 15th, 10:22
Deportations: A kinder expulsion
Democracy in America March 14th, 21:38
Blasphemy laws: Wrong on so many levels
Erasmus March 14th, 17:20
Keynes and Hayek: Prophets for today
Free exchange March 14th, 16:43


Products & events