Residential Tourism and Economic Migration: Both Sides of the Same Population Movement on the Greek Islands of Cyclades in the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

From the mid 1960s till now, a smaller population movement has materialized in the Mediterranean basin, involving western nationals who wish to stay on an island for a longer period. These population groups, originating mainly from western Europe and secondly from North America, want to share their yearly stay between their home country and one or several desirable places for a long term; this phenomenon was called ‘residential tourism’. Also, during the 1990s and after, a new movement of foreigners began to take place in Greece; a large number of economic migrants came in the beginning from the countries of the previous eastern socialist Europe and after from Asian and African war zones, aiming to find work in hard conditions. As an outcome, the insular space of the Aegean Sea and especially the Cyclades complex received a significant part of this double migratory flow. Aims of the paper are first to examine the new forms of population movements in Cyclades and secondly to focus the search in the most touristic of them, that is in Mykonos, Santorini and Paros.