Greek public’s ambivalence toward refugee children education

Dear Editor,

Greece is among the countries most involved in the current unprecedented displacement crisis. The country at this time accommodates 60,000 refugees, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq who, at the risk of their lives, crossed the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to the Greek islands. Forty percent, almost 20,000, are children. On 10 October 2016, the Greek schools welcomed 1,500 refugee children aging 6–14 years old in a special education program during the afternoon/evening hours, after the end of the regular school program. The number of schools participating in the project still increases and, as of 28 February 2017, the number of attending children was 2,500 (The UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR], 2017).

The reception of refugee children in the Greek schools caused a public split. In certain schools, there was a very positive attitude, with Greek parents participating in welcome ceremonies for the children and their families. In other schools, Greek parents demanded that refugee children should not be accepted threatening that, otherwise, they would not allow their own children to attend the morning program. ¹ Their main argument was based on the fear of transmission of infectious diseases. According to the Greek Health Ministry report, however, the vaccination program for children living in refugee hosting areas has covered, so far, 10 diseases: more than 30,000 vaccines have been given since March 2016, and the vaccination continues within a greater program of child primary care provisions. ²

It is worth noticing that most of the protests against refugee children took place in schools of economically deprived areas in which charitable organizations hand out food to Greek students. At the beginning of the current school year 2,100 schools, providing education to almost 260,000 students representing 19% of the entire student population in Greece, applied for participating in a program funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, to receive free meals for students in families below the poverty line. Research has shown that the more the host country’s population is economically deprived, the stronger the xenophobic attitudes toward refugees are (Kuntz, Davidov, & Semyonov, 2017).

Greece is accustomed to refugee crises throughout its history, either as the country of origin or as the host country, with traditionally positive attitudes and a stance of hospitality towards the stranger. Nowadays, however, the sudden influx of refugees, coinciding with the sharp economic crisis of the country, lead the Greeks to hold an ambivalent attitude towards refugees, one aspect of which has an impact on the acceptance of refugee children in Greek schools.