I’m a Grecian Policy Wonk, or at least I played one in Athens. What a great opportunity to explore and begin to understand the dynamics of a country that has played such a vital role in global history.

I know this is a blog and not a dossier, so I’ll keep it high level. I get geeked out on it, but if you feel your eyes glazing over just look at the pictures… ;-)

Foreign Policy

We started the day with Dr. Thanos Dokos, Director General of the ELIAMEP, the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy and Mr. Theodoros Skylakakis, Secretary General for International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation.

Historically speaking:

• Greece has always been a strategic location because of geography.
• Greece would like to be “an honest broker” when it comes to foreign relations.
• Greece has never been a colonial country, meaning they haven’t established colonies around the world like the French, British, Dutch, and Spanish.

Some recent issues:

• Cyprus is “an open wound” for Greek / US relations.
• Greece is a big supporter of Turkey joining the EU.
• Banking is a big area of export for Greece. They are becoming a real financial player in southern Europe.

Looking Ahead:

• Greece is focused on becoming Economic Extroverts. They want to ramp up trade and exporting.
• Energy Issues are huge and Greece wants to play a role with infrastructure.
• Middle East development – Greece has a good reputation and can play a vital role in developing this part of the world.

Immigration
Our next visit was with Dr. Anna Triantaphyllidou, a Senior Research Fellow for ELIAMEP. We discussed immigration issues and cultural diversity.

Greece has a unique and very defined population and is focused on preserving its culture.

In 1989 95% of Greeks were from Greece and were Christian Orthodox.

Today, almost 10% of the Greek population is immigrant. Why you may ask?
The change began with the fall of communism and opening of borders.

Greece has a long, porous border with Albania and 2/3 of Greek immigrants are from there. This is somewhat similar to the situation the US faces with Mexico. It is bigger though. For comparison purposes, 30% of the Albanian GDP comes from remittances, representing the number one source of income for the country.

Greece has programs for naturalization of immigrants. The program requires immigrants to contribute to society by working, not unduly use state resources, not get arrested, etc. If an immigrant (legal or otherwise) can do this for a period of time he or she can become a Greek citizen. The time range varies depending on the country of origin.

Immigrants are also allowed to attend college at Greek Universities as long as they can pass the entrance exam like anyone else.

Intellectual Dining
We ate lunch with a variety of Greek hosts from a broad range of industry at Tzitzikas & Mermigas… The plates just didn’t stop coming. I spent most of my time talking with Theodoropoulos Takis, a writer and columnist. He was great and reminded me of my accounting professor from grad school at NCSU.    I also met Microsoft's director of communications for Greece.   The whole table was abuzz with great conversation from business to trade to family to politics...