ΕλληνικάProject evaluation event: the difficulties in obtaining legal residence and citizenship
On 24/11/2023 at the cafe of Schedia we held an event to mark the end of a legal consultancy action that we provided with the support of EATA, to third country citizens of the Municipality of Athens. The legal advice concerned the right to acquire Greek citizenship and access to a legal residence status, based on the Immigration Code as it applies. During the presentation, we once again highlighted the institutional challenges that people of immigrant origin face when trying to exercise their rights. Challenges that Generation 2.0 RED constantly brings to the public discourse and tries to resolve through interventions, such as the understaffing of the competent services and the multi-year delays in issuing a decision on the renewal of the residence permit or the acquisition of Greek citizenship. Legislative loopholes that leave the status of people who were born or raised in Greece uncertain, forcing them every few years to prove their ‘right’ to continue their lives here.
The most important part of the event for us were the statements of the people of immigrant origin who came to us, and they conveyed very vividly how the loopholes in the system cause them enormous difficulties in their daily lives – how they are forced to endure multi-year waits that pose the life in Greece on condition, whether it is the right to work, study and build their life here, or the right to travel and reunite with their relatives. All the people who testified agreed that the mental cost of these procedures is enormous.
For our part, we sincerely thank them for once again coming forward to assert their right for the Greek state to treat them with equality and respect, and not as second-class citizens.
