Greece is a weird place for this debate. First of all we're an immigrant country. There are about as many Greeks living and working abroad as there are living in Greece. So the whole "They took our jobs!" argument doesn't really work. And because a lot of people have first or second hand knowledge of what the Greeks who first immigrated faced, the second argument of "The foreigners don't want to integrate! They keep speaking in their barbaric language!" falls flat, too. Islamophobia doesn't really work well, since Greece actually has regions with a Muslim majority and save for the occasional ineffectual shit stirring by Turkey there hasn't been any serious trouble. No one can scare people with nonsense about Sharia law, honor killings and violence because none of these have happened and none will ever happen. What has happened though, has been the gradual assimilation of young Muslims by western culture.
The only thing that was effective for a while were the cries about crime. For a while there was a surge in violent crime indeed but guess what? As time passed and the first wave of immigrants was integrated the surge ended. Now the cries are about the second wave of immigrants that came here from the Middle East trying to escape that mess.
The fact that there's this weird notion that Western culture which is the first civilization in human history that ever approached global monoculture status, is some weirdly fragile thing that despite being able to expand and flourish through centuries is suddenly in danger from a bunch of poor people wearing different head wear, is laughable.
The only thing that was effective for a while were the cries about crime. For a while there was a surge in violent crime indeed but guess what? As time passed and the first wave of immigrants was integrated the surge ended. Now the cries are about the second wave of immigrants that came here from the Middle East trying to escape that mess.
The fact that there's this weird notion that Western culture which is the first civilization in human history that ever approached global monoculture status, is some weirdly fragile thing that despite being able to expand and flourish through centuries is suddenly in danger from a bunch of poor people wearing different head wear, is laughable.
