ABSTRACT
An impressive economic development in the last 25 years has transformed Greece from a traditional country of origin to a host country of immigrants. In particular, as a result of radical political changes in eastern Europe, Greece – a country of about 10 million citizens – has accepted more than a million immigrants. Neither the Greek society, nor the Greek state were prepared to deal with such a complex phenomenon, which put to the test their value system and revealed invisible aspects of their character. The Greek society has a relatively ‘open’ character, in the sense that it is inadequately organized and thus allows for many deviations in resolving problems and situations and also that it offers possibilities for relatively easy social advancement, being a non polarized society in terms of class (Lambrianidis and Lymperaki 2001). Up to now, however, the ‘open’ character of the Greek society has not contributed to a more tolerant attitude towards newcomers.
