Effect of views on politics
As for Greeks’ views of immigrants, Maria Tzortzopoulou, a researcher at the National Social Research Center and an expert on immigration issues, says that the trend by some to put most of the blame on immigrants for everything bad that was happening in Europe had begun to emerge in the 1990s. «Phenomena such as these have not only been observed in countries that have long been migrant destinations but in newer migration-destination countries in Southern Europe. «These groups find a political outlet in ultra-right-wing parties that have specific views on the presence of immigrants. However, other political parties have incorporated views on these issues and in that sense the entire political system in immigrant destinations is affected,» explained Tzortzopoulou. «It is worth pointing out, however, that neither in Greece nor anywhere else has there been any support for a political party whose sole platform was to fight immigration,» Tzortzopoulou said, adding that other slogans were needed to back it up, such as securing jobs, national pride, security, private property and religion.