The Annual Demand for Seasonal Immigrant Labor in Greece During the Crisis Period

The paper investigates the annual inflow of legal immigrants in Greece the last 6 years, 2007–2012, on the basis of the demand of Greek employers for seasonal immigrant labor in provenance from non European Union countries. This process is determined by the new legislative framework described by the Law 3386/2005 on the entrance, accommodation and social integration of third country nationals in the Greek territory. Every year Greek authorities determine the maximum number of residence and work permits that will be given to non EU immigrants. Permits concern mainly seasonal jobs and are provided basically to Albanian workers. Local needs for work determine the number of immigrants on the local level. Local demand is expressed through prefectures, (Greece is divided administratively in 54 prefectures). The local needs determine the national demand, and therefore the annual inflow, for legal economic immigrants from non EU countries. Some prefectures in the North of Greece concentrate the majority of this immigrant population. The paper analyses the evolution of this demand during the crisis period and tries to investigate if the economic crisis and especially unemployment influenced this evolution. The analysis is based on a prefectural level because it permits a more qualitative approach of the evolution since we can have a more specific result.