Greece is slowly waking up to the fact that there are many people living here who are not Greek. There has been a flurry of studies and surveys recently that seem to be showing a fairly confused state of affairs. The confusion about what people feel about foreigners and immigrants has been, in my opinion, compounded by the rabid media here. Hardly a day goes by without some hysterical reporting about some crime being committed by a foreigner. There will be some incident and one or all of the big private channels will be “on the spot”, trundling out neighbour after neighbour, remote relative after even remoter relative, to speculate on what happened and who did it. Many of the “eyewitnesses”weren’t even there. They just heard about it from Mr So and So who lives nearby but probably didn’t see anything either. Gossip spreads like wildfire in any small communities.
Then we have the infamous (here at least) screaming boxes. Picture this. The screen is split into five or six sections with a different guest in each and the “presenter” umpiring. What follows is mind-boggling at best. The guests all talk or shout simultaneously, trying to get their opinion across. The one who shouts the loudest might get a few seconds where you can sometimes hear what he is saying… until he/she gets shouted down by the next loudest. And on it goes, for what seems like hours with the presenter mostly sitting helplessly in one of the boxes unable to control his own guests. It would make a good Monty Python sketch.
In our little neighbourhood there was an armed robbery a while back (I blogged about it but can’t find the post). The “word on the street the next morning was that it was Albanians who committed the crime. When I talked to the guy who was robbed he told me that they were Greek. No doubt this scene is played many times over in this country.
My point is that when it happens in your small neighbourhood, you can see that you were mistaken when the truth comes out.
“It wasn’t one of the foreigners, it was one of our own!”
But when this scene is played out on the television, day after day, and reported by famous celebrity “journalists”, how can people distinguish between these “facts” and pure fiction ? There is no come-back for the irresponsible journalists because as long as they get the ratings, they can pretty much say what they like. Fact or fiction.
So what brought on this little rant ? A short article in Kathimerini about the role of the media in confusing people about immigrants and foreigners.
An overwhelming 88 percent of Greeks said that they do not see migrants as a problem, nor do they mind living or working next to them. On the other hand, the poll found that although 88 percent feel that foreigners do jobs that are rejected by Greeks, 56 percent still blame migrants for the country’s unemployment.
The confusion seems to be a result of the fragmented and unsubstantiated information provided by Greece’s influential news media. Despite the misinformation coming from the press and television, Greece is still far from being described as an intolerant county. Nevertheless, the media seems to be responsible for much of the popular disillusionment with politics. Asked which party is best suited to tackle the challenge of migration, most Greeks said “none.”
I think confused is a good way to describe what Greece is going through in terms of immigration.
Technorati Tags: immigration, racism, migration, Greece
Citizenship Battles on February 17th, 2010
Being Greek on February 10th, 2010
Laos Against Citizenship on January 25th, 2010
The Immigration Debate on January 22nd, 2010
Lack of Humanity on November 2nd, 2009
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Greeks are victims of what we call “parapliroforisis” (misinformation). Or, even better, they are not informed at all about immigrants and their problems.
In my hobble opinion, I think nationalism (which means racism in the same time) is the major cause of this situation. In Greece the “Nation” is above all. If you say something that seems to be against the nation you are “anthellinas” (hater-of-the-Greeks) and simple your opinion does not count.
This is why even the major political parties are afraid to speak freely about the immigrants and their point of view about them. If a political party speaks in favor of them, it´s almost 100% sure that this will have some serious political causes.
Nationalism rises rapidly in Greece, especially after the formation of the nationalist political party of “Laos” (Public, Orthodox Alarm) and the beginning of their propaganda against everyone that does not have “Greek Blood” or does not accept their extreme, racist and nationalistic ideas. It´s sad to say, but THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY NEITHER!
I want to apologize for all the problems my country caused to the immigrants in Greece.
I am pretty pesimistic about the popularity of racist ideas in Greece. I think they are spreading rapidly.
Of course the mass media have their share for that. But I personally put the blame to the Greeks. They are not just being brainwashed by the media. The opposite is true. The media tell them what they wish to hear. That the immigrants are the reason for all their problems and that they – the Greeks – are better.
Ms Diva we kindly invite you to take part to the post race of the Greek blogosphere. Please check on my blog for details.
It seems to me that the Greek public is not particularly confused about immigrants anymore. If 88% of respondents do not see foreigners as a problem, that says something. Remember a few years ago when we were bombarded with polls showing the opposite? What’s changed is the daily encounters with foreigners. Greeks aren’t blind, they believe what they see in front of them, and if they see a perfectly honest & hardworking person trying to get by, they’re not going to believe that Evagelatos creature on ANT1 telling them all foreigners have fangs and tails. It took some time to get this far, and there’s still a long way to go, but it is progress.
Part of the problem has to do with the nature of television – it’s all about money, which means it’s all about advertising. The ad biz is full of clever, ambitious folks who get paid an awful lot of money to predict the public’s tastes, and news shows are just the pursuit of moving product by other means. If they think the public wants xenophobia, then that’s what the stations will broadcast. The little windowboxes you mentioned in your post are filled with the same talking heads day after day – not to provide a new or interesting or informative point of view, but because ratings have shown that these particular parakeets are guaranteed to draw X number of viewers. The logic is that these people say things that lots of other people agree with who will buy whatever mobile phone or deodorant is advertised during the show. Other talking heads are there just to be provocative and provide some colour. If Mr. Karatzaferis of LAOS gave good television, he’d be on every night, but fortunately he looks & acts like a used rug salesman and he frequently says very strange things that don’t make any sense. (That’s why he has his own TV station, which has a very small audience.) The fact is that the extreme right hasn’t managed to learn to sell deodorant. Neither has the extreme left, for that matter.
Also, it’s important to remember, next time you see a really, really annoying advert on TV, that that piece of visual garbage was crafted and calculated to make you feel superior. TV everywhere is all about comfort and flattery punctuated by violence. Security, security, security, INSECURITY, security etc.. It’s a pretty simple formula.
Anyway, in all fairness, Greeks aren’t the only victims of ‘parapliroforisi.’ As often as I hear ignorant and bizarre commentary here in Athens, the problem is much, much worse in the United States. Over there, the mainstream media has done a criminally bad job in reporting the news, with the result that the American public still isn’t quite sure where Iraq is on a map and the extreme right HAS learned how to sell deodorant.
completely with you on this. atleast in my case, I can see confusion state-of-mind among somany place i met. Iam indian living in athens. at work, Iam middle-management-level and people known me/background/etc.. somehow that translate into good relationship and kindness among my coworkers but when I walk outside I think, Iam misunderstood for some shipping labour migration worker. may be because of iam brown skill people.!?!..not sure.
I didnt make any effort to learn the greek language because I command lot of respect being a banker and talking in english rather than speaking in greek and trying to fit-in (which i would love to do).
apart from few british and americans.. greece not see too many foreigners living here.. specially young professional working for MNCs.
/Yuva
I think it’s universal trend, the settling diasporas. 88% are talking the talk. I look at Tv and the monotone color and accent of it, then switch to multicultural tv and all the big companies run the same ads dubbed with different color of faces so why not run those ads on mainstream stations. They assume their audience only watched heritage tv? that mainstream will not see themselves that way?
Hi jim_hellas, welcome back. It’s been a while since you commented here (if my memory serves me correctly) and your comments are much appreciated. i think you are right about nationalism here in that it rises very quickly and I think this is a trend we are seeing throughout Europe. In times of troubles, we seem to fall back on the easy scapegoats ie foreigners. I see it all the time in the British press which is probably even worse than here. I don’t follow the Greek tabloids so I am not sure what kind of thing passes for journalism there. Maybe you could enlighten me?
Hi inlovewithlife, I would love to take part in an online discussion on race here but sadly my Greek is nowhere near the level of being able to do any justice to my thoughts and I cannot write in Greek! Sad but true. Thank you very much for the invite. If there is any discussion in English that you know about, let me know. Isn’t there a Greek language chip I could just download directly into my brain ??
Hello there, scraf, welcome back to you too. As always, an insightful comment. And spot on. I ove your description of Karatzaferis
I agree with the fact that you point out that the States is worse because they have learned how to play the game. It’s the same in Britain. Something to worry about indeed!
Hi Yuva and welcome. I know what you mean about how people treat you differently in a work setting if you have a position and how they treat you on the street. I think fitting in does become easier if you speak Greek (even as badly as I do) I have seen people visibly change when I answer them. I am chatty with most people in my neighbourhood and I notice how differently I am treated as opposed to another foreigner who doesn’t speak any Greek.
Hi Pearl, yes, I think it is a trend everywhere not just in Greece. I never knew there was such a thing as multicultural TV ?
great article ms dd
on another point concerning the ROM of votanikos i was a witness of the prefecture
of attica (NOMARXHS ATHINON) Mr John Sgouros
has commited on a radio station
that at least he will try to remove all
the garbage from the land were the ROM live,
bring in a temporary water mains ,
and have regular garbage services,
and to try to find some solution
for better land under humane conditions
(if they let him..?)
even though their political opponents
with the mayor of athens , and legally
the city is responsible , i got the idea
and the sentiment that he truly wants
to do something about this situation
the land belongs to the city of athens
of course , i dont know if its political
jerking around because were going
into general election year ,, but at
least our garbage media got off its
daily garbage presentation and pushed
to find whats going in this particular instance
of course nothanks to persons such as yourself
and panayiotis who have shown humane concern and steady interest , in the ROM population of votanikos .
=z=
Zardoz, this is really good news! I haven’t heard from Panayote about this so I am not sure if it is
Urban centres in Canada have it. One hour a day for each language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFMT-TV but I don’t know how widespread it is. Maybe it’s more of a local gift than I realized.
CHIN does it for radio, apparently it’s a first http://www.chinradio.com/about_chin.php
http://www.mikarrhea.com/816/n.....um-bigoted
compares prejudice levels for different groups in different countries.
I honestly wish I could say immigration is the only issue that Greece is “confused” about, at the moment..
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s my home country and I love it, but there’s just so much that’s not working as it should
Still, hope always dies last so…here’s to a better future!