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The refugee problem, which Greece faces since 2015, comprise one of the key challenges for policymakers in terms both of immediate measures to protect refugees in host centers and of the prospects for their smooth integration into the socio-economic system. The research project entitled "Detection and classification of perspectives for the inclusion of refugees in the Greek production system. Case study in Crete and Mytilene", in which this paper is based, focuses on these perspectives. Therefore, within the framework of the triangular research process which was followed, quantitative research through a structured questionnaire was conducted to refugees in the selected area of ​​Mytilene, which has received huge refugee inflows since 2015 and still has a significant refugee population in the host centers. In a second phase, the dimensions, prospects, shortcomings and barriers on the integration of refugees into the labor market were explored through semi-structured interviews in Crete and Mytilene with entrepreneurs and social partners’ representatives (75 interviews in each island). The selection of these two geographical areas was carried out in order to investigate the different dimensions and potential opportunities for integration, as long as Mytilene has received extensive refugee inflows while Crete has not received refugee flows and is an appropriate field of entrepreneurship and potential integration of refugees in the production process. Furthermore, 40 narrative interviews were conducted in Crete with “old” integrated refugees and immigrants in order to investigate the problems and challenges they faced during their integration process and the conditions for current refugees in terms of integration. This research is expected to provide useful material for constructing intervention and incentive directions, benefiting refugees’ social integration and the evolvement of their social and human capital.

In January 2015 the radical left SYRIZA has won the Greek national elections and formed a coalition government with Independent Greeks (ANEL), a right-wing populist party. After a seven-month negotiation with Greece’s creditors and the agreement for the implementation of a third memorandum of fiscal adjustment, SYRIZA announced the conduction of a second round of national elections in September 2015. After a second electoral victory, SYRIZA formed again a coalition government with ANEL. The main characteristic of SYRIZA’s pre-electoral campaign was that it has primarily focused on the commitment for austerity measures termination and on the implementation of tax alleviation. Even during the second electoral campaign in September 2015, after the agreement for the implementation of the third memorandum of fiscal adjustment, SYRIZA was promising that its implementation will be socially endued in order to reduce negative social consequences, such as those created by the previous memoranda. Practically though, after the first months of the new memorandum implementation, it is obvious that the government has introduced an unprecedented tax policy. Interestingly, this policy is not different from a traditional left logic of tax enforcement but actually leads to the implementation of horizontal austerity policies which firstly affect the socially vulnerable groups. From this point of view, while SYRIZA emphatically declare that it aims at resolving the crisis, its policies seem to deepen the depression. For instance, its inability to find alternative options to finance the social security system, leads to the implementation of restrictive policies which dismantle the welfare state. This paper aims at analyzing the policies of the first left government in Greece by focusing on the tentative social consequences of the third memorandum and at the same time, studying some of the basic factors for its electoral victory, such as populism.

Financial crisis has connected Europe with an obvious common pattern which consists the rapidly rise of protest parties that challenge the established political systems. The basic and new feature of these schemes is the intense war rhetoric against the European Union and the vehement rejection of the selected modes of euro rescue. In this sense, populism appears as a new specter haunting European democracies, as active risk, causing serious concerns. Unfortunately, the growing concern does not coincide with policies aiming at finding viable solutions, as the center-right parties and governments believe that the only solution to the crisis is to adopt austerity measures and Social Democrats have not yet found effective alternatives.