1 in 10 foreign pupils born here
In what is seen as a sign that economic migrants are becoming rapidly integrated in Greek society, over 10 percent of all schoolchildren whose parents immigrated to the country were born in Greece, according to recent research. A survey conducted by the Institute for the Education of Ethnic Greek Immigrants and Cross-cultural Education (IPODE) found that of the 1,460,464 children who attended school in Greece in the fall 2002-summer 2003 term, 130,114 – some 9 percent – were born to foreign or ethnic Greek immigrant families. A total of 98,241 were the children of foreign (mostly Albanian) immigrants, while the remaining 31,873 were born to ethnic Greek immigrants. Out of the schoolchildren belonging to the first group, 10.7 percent were born in Greece, while the corresponding figure for the second group was 15.4 percent. «A second generation of immigrants is forming in Greece, as was the case with traditional European immigrant-hosting countries during the first decades after World War II,» IPODE’s deputy chairman, Athanassios Gotovos, told Kathimerini. A total 42.7 percent of foreign schoolchildren was found to have lived in Greece for at least six years, while 57.3 percent had spent no more than five years in the country. Most of the foreign pupils are enrolled in primary (where they form 10.60 percent of all classes) and junior high schools (10.17 percent of the total), followed by pre-school classes (8 percent) and senior high schools (5.13 percent). Some 35.6 percent of Greek schools have no foreign pupils, while 45.8 percent have up to 10. In 17.1 percent of schools, there are 10-50 foreign pupils and in 1.5 percent, over 50. The highest concentration of foreign and ethnic Greek pupils is in Attica (11.92 percent).
