It's been amazing for me to see how multi-ethnic Greece has become. Or at least Athens. There are both legal and illegal immigrants all over, from Albania, the far East, Africa, eastern Europe and the middle East. My cousin who we've been staying with just outside of Athens had a couple of Polish men expanding his patio. So the immigrants are the new trades people, labourers and salespeople. They work for less and some have excellent skills. It's odd to hear Greek come from the mouths of so many different looking faces and with so many different accents.
My friend Maria tells me that the Greeks are generally kind to and try to help these people as Greeks have also suffered through so much so recently. After the 2nd world war, and the even worse ensuing civil war, there were dictatorships, coups, depressions and economic and political strife in Greece that would make any central American country seem almost stable.
About a fifth of Greece's population is currently made up of immigrants and refugees.
