Fifty percent
How many migrants live in Greece, and how many of them are Albanian? Statistics for last year from the IKA social insurance foundation record 505,036 migrants, representing more than 25 percent of the total number of people insured. Almost half of them (243,828) are Albanian. Given that a large proportion of migrants remain uninsured, and another large number work in agriculture (and so belong to the OGA rural insurance fund), migrants probably number around 800,000. With their families they number around 1 million, of which half are of Albanian origin. The European Observatory on racism and xenophobia estimates the number of migrants in Greece to be about 900,000. But the official state statistical service calculates there were 797,093 migrants in 2001. Assuming that some were not documented for various reasons, the number is approximately the same. Last year Greek banks conducted a study which calculated the number of migrants to be 800,000-1,000,000, with an average annual family income of 12,000 euros. An indication of their integration into Greek society is that Albanian families possess some 250,000 accounts at Greek banks, with an average deposit of 10,000-15,000 euros. According to the same study, all migrant households have a television and 75 percent have telephones.
