Migrants seen as key to solving labor shortages

Greece must to review its migration policy to address labor shortages and demographic shifts like low birth rates and a rapidly aging population that threaten long-term growth, government officials tell Kathimerini.

“Major highway projects are short on workers; [employers] have turned to the Middle East for [job candidates],” a Migration Ministry official noted.

Some 18,000 asylum seekers are currently housed in facilities around Greece, with around half meeting employment criteria. The new system will need to address the specific needs of the domestic labor market – especially acute staffing shortages in farming, eldercare, tourism and construction – while ensuring newcomers are appropriately integrated.

However, the sources added, the country must also ensure it does not send the wrong signal: “We must be tough on irregular migration, yet pragmatic on legal [migration].”