The Annual Demand for Seasonal Immigrant Labor in Greece and its Influence on the Entrance of Albanian Workers

Abstract

The paper investigates the annual inflow of legal immigrants in Greece the last 6 years, 2005–2010, 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 profited 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. The paper analyses the evolution of this demand and tries to explain the factors that influence this evolution; are they mainly structural or they are related to economic activity? 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. It appears that some prefectures, especially at the region of Central Macedonia, concentrate the main part of the annual demand for seasonal workers from third countries, basically Albanian workers. This demand is oriented to land workers, mainly for agricultural work. It appears that unemployment has only limited influence on this demand.