Greece Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Migration === {{Main|Greek diaspora|Immigration to Greece}} [[File:50 largest Greek diaspora.png|thumb|upright=1.7|A map of the fifty countries with the largest [[Greek diaspora]] communities]] Throughout the 20th century, millions of Greeks migrated to the [[Greek Americans|United States]], [[Greeks in the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]], [[Greek Australians|Australia]], [[Greek Canadians|Canada]], and [[Greeks in Germany|Germany]], creating a large [[Greek diaspora]]. Net migration started to show positive numbers from the 1970s, but until the beginning of the 1990s, the main influx was that of returning Greek migrants or of [[Pontic Greeks]] and others from [[Greeks in Russia|Russia]], [[Greeks in Georgia|Georgia]], [[Greeks in Turkey|Turkey]] the [[Greeks in the Czech Republic|Czech Republic]], and elsewhere in the former [[Soviet Bloc]].<ref name=eliamep>Triandafyllidou, Anna. [http://www.idea6fp.uw.edu.pl/pliki/POES_Greece_PB_3.pdf "Migration and Migration Policy in Greece"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923025433/http://www.idea6fp.uw.edu.pl/pliki/POES_Greece_PB_3.pdf |date=23 September 2013 }}. ''Critical Review and Policy Recommendations''. [[Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy]]. No. 3, April 2009</ref> A study from the Mediterranean Migration Observatory maintains that the 2001 census recorded 762,191 persons residing in Greece without Greek citizenship, constituting around 7% of the total population. Of the non-citizen residents, 48,560 were EU or [[European Free Trade Association]] nationals and 17,426 were Cypriots with privileged status. The majority come from Eastern European countries: Albania (56%), Bulgaria (5%) and Romania (3%), while migrants from the former Soviet Union (Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, etc.) comprise 10% of the total.<ref>Kasimis, Charalambos; Kassimi, Chryssa (June 2004). [http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/greece-history-migration/ "Greece: A History of Migration"]. Migration Information Source.</ref> Some of the immigrants from Albania are from the [[Greeks in Albania|Greek minority in Albania]] centred on the region of [[Northern Epirus]]. In addition, the total Albanian national population which includes temporary migrants and undocumented persons is around 600,000.<ref>Managing Migration: The Promise of Cooperation. By Philip L. Martin, Susan Forbes Martin, Patrick Weil</ref> The [[Greek census 2011|2011 census]] recorded 9,903,268 Greek citizens (91.56%), 480,824 Albanian citizens (4.44%), 75,915 Bulgarian citizens (0.7%), 46,523 Romanian citizenship (0.43%), 34,177 Pakistani citizens (0.32%), 27,400 [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] citizens (0.25%) and 247,090 people had other or unidentified citizenship (2.3%).<ref name="populationbycitizenship">{{cite press release|url=http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/BUCKET/General/nws_SAM01_EN.PDF |title=Announcement of the demographic and social characteristics of the Resident Population of Greece according to the 2011 Population |publisher=[[Hellenic Statistical Authority|Greek National Statistics Agency]] |page=9 |date=23 August 2013 |access-date=3 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225192921/http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/BUCKET/General/nws_SAM01_EN.PDF |archive-date=25 December 2013 }}</ref> 189,000 people of the total population of Albanian citizens were reported in 2008 as ethnic Greeks from [[Southern Albania]], in the historical region of [[Northern Epirus]].<ref name=eliamep /> The greatest cluster of non-EU immigrant population are the larger urban centers, especially the Municipality of Athens, with 132,000 immigrants comprising 17% of the local population, and then Thessaloniki, with 27,000 immigrants reaching 7% of the local population. There is also a considerable number of co-ethnics that came from the Greek communities of Albania and the former [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=eliamep /> Greece, together with Italy and Spain, is a major entry point for [[European migrant crisis|illegal immigrants trying to enter the EU]]. Illegal immigrants entering Greece mostly do so from the border with [[Turkey]] at the [[Evros River]] and the islands of the eastern Aegean across from Turkey (mainly [[Lesbos]], [[Chios]], [[Kos]], and [[Samos]]). In 2012, the majority of illegal immigrants entering Greece came from [[Afghanistan]], followed by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.<ref>{{cite news|title=In crisis, Greece rounds up immigrants β Associated Press|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/10403249|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=11 June 2013|date=22 August 2012|location=London}}</ref> In 2015, arrivals of refugees by sea had increased dramatically mainly due to the ongoing [[Syrian civil war]]. There were 856,723 arrivals by sea in Greece, an almost fivefold increase to the same period of 2014, of which the [[Syrians]] represent almost 45%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/country.php?id=83|title=Refugees/Migrants Emergency Response β Mediterranean, Greece|date=13 February 2016|publisher=[[UNHCR]]|access-date=20 February 2016|archive-date=17 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160217181157/http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/country.php?id=83|url-status=dead}}</ref> The majority of refugees and migrants use Greece as a transit country, while their intended destinations are northern European Nations such as [[Austria]], Germany and Sweden.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911|title=Migrant crisis: Migration to Europe explained in seven charts|date=4 March 2016|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=7 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-35091772|title=This migrant crisis is different from all others|last=Simpson|first=John|date=24 December 2015|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=7 June 2017}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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