Migration mental health issues in Europe: the case of Greece

The migrations of people of many different cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds have been a major issue of concern in Greece the last three decades. Since 1989 Greece has been transformed into a host country for immigrants and refugees. The collapse of the former socialist regimes of Eastern Europe and the slow but steady growth of Greek economy, in combination with its location, turned Greece into a major draw for hundreds of thousand immigrants. According to 2001 census, the total immigrant population in Greece was about 800,000 people, of which approximately 60% came from neighboring Albania. It has been estimated that from 1988 to 2004 the number of foreigners living in Greece were more than one million. Research on the mental health among immigrant children in Greece during the past decade showed that this population did not present more serious or diverse psychopathology or worse social adaptation compared to Greek children [1, 2]. Immigrant families had equal levels of service utilization as Greek families. However, it was apparent that immigrant families did not apply for help as readily as their Greek counterparts. Also, immigrant students seemed to perform significantly lower academic achievement and be less engaged in school (possibly in order to protect themselves from academic failure) than their nonimmigrant classmates [3, 4].