by Soraia Ramos
‘In Greece, it is different to have a resident permit and to have the right of a passport or a citizenship’, explains Andromachi Papaioannon from Generationz 2.0 Organization. Working with young emigrants’ generation and second generation from different backgrounds, this organization’s goal is to promote social acceptance and cohesion. Deliver seminars and workshops to children and young people about Human rights and Diversity are the main tools to achieve this objective. Provide counselling and advising about the needed procedures is other very requested service.
The organization is based in the city of Athens, where more than 80% of the emigrants live. A lot of them have difficulties with the Greek bureaucratic system.
To have official documentation to live in Greece ‘doesn’t mean to be able to vote or to work on the public sector’. According to Generationz 2.0 representatives, ‘a French African woman has more rights in Greece than an African citizen that has born in Greece’.
They know the language, they belong to the Greek culture and they identify themselves with the country. They are more than 200 thousand people, but they are not even considered to the official statistics.
