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Albanians in Greece

cafebabel has an article on attitudes towards Albanian immigrants in Greece.
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Anonymous said…
Wow...so sad. These articles make me thank god that I live in North America: the only place in the world where you can be whatever you want and it won't be held against you. Whenever I think of the Greek-Albanian migration issue I can't help but paralelize it a bit with the Mexico/U.S. illegial alien debates that have been going on for some time now. The same issues seem to be at stake: bringing wages down, adequate work environment etc. Of course the Mexican migration is at a much larger rate.

What I'm worried about though, is that many albos change their names and turn greek just to belong in greece. And while that could be ok for albanians in england or the US or even Italy, we still have territorial issues with Greece, a country that still has a strong nationalistic group in all of its political parties. The sooner Greece adapts swift reforms in immigration laws, the safer it will be for albanians to keep their identity.
3:14 pm
Anonymous said…
You can't compare it to Mexico/US:

Ethnically and culturally Albanians and GReeks are very close.
I think Greek people are very nice, the majority of them, especially to the Albanians. I have been many times in GReece and I was always treated nicely. I have more than 30 people of my extended family who have gone to GReece since 1992. They are fully integrated into Greek culture and they were never treated badly because they are Albanians!
What would Albanians do if suddenly we got 600 000 GReeks illegally from the border?
Last time i was in Athens i was scandalized by the number of Pakis, chinese and Africans! I would never want large numbers of migrants in Albania. I once heard some chinese in Albania speaking fluent Albanian and I'm sorry but it was so ugly. I can't accept it. MY language is only for us to come only of our mouths! Now for Greeks Albanians are the most favourite!
Despite the ignorance on the internet and some few bad Greeks, in general they are really nice and generous people.
The article mentioned it, the problem of crime. It is very true that those who excaped prisons in 97 mostly ended up in GReece. They cannot come back to Albania because they will face even more years of jail and so they have fake identity in Greece. But old ways don't change and criminals are always criminals.
I agree with regulating immigration between Albania and GReece because it will benefit Albanian migrants there and the relationship between the 2 countries.
9:21 pm
tabakhone said…
An Albo who is adverse to hearing Chinese folk speak Albanian, but whose family lives in Greece as immigrant, which family he visits and is "scandalized" to see there are other non Albanian "shall we say brown?", immigrants there!!!
You see Omit what Communism does to people? You see the results of long years of malnutrition and lack of basic amenities? Do you see how twisted the mind of the youth gets to become from such harsh life? An anti-immigrant immigrant whose, I'm sure, the first color TV was bought by, you guessed it, immigrant money.
10:51 pm
Anonymous said…
anonymous, do you actually think these thoughts, or did you have a moment of weakness. People have alwasy migrated and probably always will. Why is it weird to you that a chinese man speaks albanian. Are you a racist. Actually I dont even know how to respond to that post. Its just plain dumb.
12:23 am
Anonymous said…
I went to Greece once when I was 15 years old. I come back and promised to my mom never to return there and I have never been since, despite now having a UK passport and my uncle living there. It is the only place that do not deserve a cent of my hard earned money and if it is the last place on earth I WILL NEVER GO.
Guys move on, there are a lot of countries there who appreciate what you contribute and treat you like an equal fellow human.
11:16 pm
ProViaMo said…
True! There are a lot of Countries that treat you as a human being, or at least treat you Equal, but Greece is not. I just travelled once to Greeece, to visit some parents, and i felt badly. I live in Italy, and i have lived in Ireland and UK, and i can say it: Italy is not the best place to live compared with other countries, you're not equal when you look for a renting a house, orr for a job. you are not equal with an Italian, but you're an immigrant, but you don't have to hide it. Knowing peoplee, they begin to treat you equal. But it is not as bad as greecce, where you're worst than nothing. I could feel it in greece, everytime i was speaking with my parents, every time i was in a bar. And i was treated differently if i was speaking eenglish, they thought i was a turist. Greece is the last ccountry where i will turn back to visit. AAndd i feel very bad about that, because i understaand that not greeks are like that, and this is a cconsequence of ignorance. And i feel worse when i see that it could be the same for albania, as probably ignorance is spread even in my country, in a terrible high amount, and i think it could be worse. and no one is doing something abbout that. And there are lots of racist albaanian that don't even understand it, and write things like the guy before... what a shame!
Hoping time, comunication and education would fix things out...
9:24 am
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