“Yes there’s racism,” said the Greek students. “There are problems sometimes,” said the migrant students more hesitantly. Some migrants keep quiet, stoically hoping for a better future in Greece while others feel the intensity of the reaction that is simmering.

Marcos, 18, who arrived as a child with his family from Kenya, got onto a tourism course at a tertiary technical college (TEI) in Patras. He distributes publicity flyers and is paid 17.60 euros for every four hours he works. He dreams of becoming a soccer player.

At first, like other migrants such as Valentinos, Yiannis and Manolis, he denied that there is a racism problem. “I didn’t have any problems at school with friends and teachers,” said Marcos. “Only one teacher in high school.”

The responses given by Valentinos and Yiannis, who attend a technical high school in Metaxourgeio, were similar. “Everything’s fine at school, our classmates are fine, the teachers are fine.” When the questions were posed differently on the same subjects, the answers were different: “Some of the teachers have problems… If we like a Greek girl, it’s difficult to go out with her… There are rows at school… We are separated into Greeks and Albanians… There are fights.”