The development of national asylum policies in times of economic recession: Challenges for Greece

Abstract

At the outbreak of the economic crisis in 2010, Greece was faced with a rare conjuncture of extremely difficult socio-economic circumstances. This huge challenge revealed the long-lasting weaknesses and distortions both of the public as well as of the private and civil sector. In order to return to normality, Greece is compelled to achieve two parallel goals: on one hand, maintain its capacity to support current standard public policies and, on the other hand, to promote deep and radical reforms on many different levels. However, the achievement of both of these goals has proven to be extremely difficult (Amitsis, 2012) due to the heavy fiscal constraints (e.g. inability to cover gaps in human resources, basic infrastructures, technological equipment etc.) imposed in the context of the Financial Stability Mechanisms1 implemented since May 2010. The situation has significantly worsened during the last year due to political instability (two snap elections in one year), as well as the long-lasting negotiations between Greece and the Troika which led – during summer 2015 – to an internal tacit “payment freezing” for the public sector and the implementation of a capitol control mechanism (the latter still in force until this day). In the field of migration and asylum policies, the effects of the crisis have been utterly detrimental. Greece has traditionally been lacking an autonomous and sound migration management system, since the creation of such a system has never before been a strong policy priority. After the crisis, the development of a national migration/asylum system became even more difficult due to the aforementioned fiscal constraints (European Parliament, 2015). In view of these circumstances, the recent refugee and migration crisis found Greece completely unprepared and very weak.