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A recent EU study shows Greece with the highest percentage of unemployed university graduates compared to other EU countries. Where the EU average is 6.5%, in Greece 8.8% of those with a degree in higher education are unemployed. Greeks do however show less unemployment in the fields of unskilled labor (7.6%), whereas the EU average is 11.6% in the same category. It should be noted that less than a third of Europeans between the ages of 30-35 have a university degree today.
Image: http://www.davidduke.com/page/2 |
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According to the Greek Ministry of Education, graduates of US and UK universities or colleges in Greece (known as Centers of Secondary Education in Greece), have the right to the process of recognition of their professional rights. However, the law applies only to graduates of such universities or colleges which operate under a license of the Greek government and have valid contracts of validation or are considered the branch of other EU universities.
Some prerequisites for the recognition of such professional rights are as follow:
- The profession in question must be regulated by legislation in Greece.
- The applicant must have obtained professional rights for the profession in question at the EU member-state where the main campus or cooperating university is located.
- The certificate issued by the Center of Secondary Education must be identical to one issued at the EU member-state branch had the applicant completed the course of studies there.
- The certificate issued by the Center of Secondary Education must grant the applicant the same rights to the EU member-state where the main campus or cooperating university is located.
Aside from the above prerequisites the applications for professional rights are examined at a personal level by the Council for Professional Rights Recognition (Symvoulio Anagnorisis Epaggelmatikon Prosonton).
Source: http://www.minedu.gov.gr/dioikhtika-eggrafa/keme/28-09-10-kentra-metalykeiakis-ekpaideysis-keme.html |
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 The GGAE (General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad - Γενική Γραμματεία Απόδημου Ελληνισμού) is hosting two periods of summer camp for children of Greek descent aged 8 to 12. The deadline for application submission is March 29, 2010. If you're interested contact your embassy's education department and read the following:
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The General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad is once again organizing the program "Greek Language and Culture" for the year 2010. What does this mean? Greeks between the age of 18 and 25 living in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay, Panama, Peru, Chile, South Africa and Zimbabwe have the opportunity to come to Greece (Athens) for the period between January 17 to February 6.
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 The last couple months there has been an ad on television prompting everyone to get their AMKA (Αριθμός Μητρώου Κοινωνικής Ασφάλισης). There’s quite a confusion as to why we need, why now, and so on. Basically, AMKA will replace the social security number (αριθμό μητρώου) that public insurance agencies issued until today, and it is mandatory for all insured employees or self-employed individuals, their families, all retirees and everyone working in the country.
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Those who are citizens of the European Union and the European Economic Area (Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland) are entitled to a European Health Insurance Card, which they may use when traveling for a short period of time to the countries mentioned above. The EHIC is issued at IKA so that people traveling to these countries can have easy access to the public health care system in case they need it.
Greece has signed agreements with several countries in order to facilitate the social security contributions and process for the insured Greeks who work or have worked abroad. Namely:
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You may loose your nationality rights if:
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 If your child is born abroad of Greek parents (at least one) then you should register the birth of your child at the Greek embassy or consulate authorized in your area in order to receive a Greek Birth Certificate. You will have to provide documents such as the birth certificate issued by the authorities of your country, your marriage certificate, your child’s baptism certificate (if there is one), any relevant passports and other documents, which can be better explained by the appropriate employee at the embassy or consulate.
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 The ceremony is over and you had a blast afterwards with your friends and relatives. So what do you have to do next?
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 If one of you is a Greek Orthodox Christian and the other is a Christian of the Catholic or Protestant faith, you can get married in a Greek Orthodox church as long as the non-Orthodox Christian was baptized with the Triadic Baptism.
You will need to present the priest of the church in which you plan to marry the following documents:
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Civil Wedding
Both of you must separately collect the documents below and give them to the municipality where you are resident:
1. A completed application from your municipality building;
2. A 15-euro receipt from the eforia;
3. Your ID or passport as well as a photocopy of it;
4. A copy of your birth certificate from the Registry Office (Ληξειαρχείο);
5. If you’re under 18, you must have a court order;
6. An affidavit stating that (i) you are a resident of this municipality, (ii) that you have no impediment to marry according to articles 1350, 1351, 1354, 1356, 1357, 1360 of civil law, and (iii) if it’s your first, second marriage;
7. Two copies of the local newspaper in which you published an ad of your impending marriage;
8. If you’re divorced, you must have your certificate of divorce;
9. A document stating the last name you would like your children to take;
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 There are a variety of summer camp opportunities throughout Greece. It’s a chance for kids to get to know Greece and to love its good aspects while making new friends and having fun. What better way for the younger generations to develop the same love for Greece as previous ones?
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 In this article you will find a list of some American and British schools in Greece... English-speaking and private, of course!
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 Here’s a short insight on the Greek education system.
School is compulsory until the age of 15 (when you finish middle school or gymnasio). Students then have the option to continue onto regular high schools known as Eniaio Lykeio or technological high schools known as TEE (TEE are considered a step below). In their last and second-to-last year of high school students take nationally administered exams. Their performance in these exams determines which university they are accepted into. Greek universities are public, which means they’re free, so the selection process for the most popular majors is rough. Universities are separated into AEI (or Higher Education Institution) and TEI (Technological Education Institute).
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 OK so you’re a senior in high school and this instilled love of the motherland, or maybe just the great summers you’ve spent here throughout your life, have made you seriously consider spending your college years in Greece. They’re supposed to be the greatest years of your life, they say, so why not spend them in Greece, right? Well, here’s a little insight on how things work here.
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An International Centre of Knowledge and Research
The International Hellenic University (IHU), the first English-speaking state university in Greece, was founded in 2005 in Thessaloniki. The University has three schools: the School of Economics and Business Administration, the School of Science and Technology and the School of Humanities.
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Greece has had a homogenous population until the last couple decades. The first wave of immigration 20 years ago brought thousands of Albanians, when communism collapsed in the neigboring country, and the last decade has seen an influx of immigrants from Africa and the East - they're mostly people who see Greece as the threshold to the EU and a better life. These changes have caused insecurity to some and a deep sense of xenophobia to other Greeks.
The question is, what are Greeks so afraid of? Especially when some of us have worked (and still do so) abroad and even more have at least one relative that was an immigrant to other countries.
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 If you don't live in Greece and wish to take part in a seminar that focuses on how to teach Greek as a second language, the Greek Language Center is holding a long distance seminar starting June 1st, 2010 and lasting until May 2011. The application deadline is on April 16, 2010.
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You've made up your mind. You're moving to Greece. You found a college you like and you just want to have your freedom in a country you know that fun is just around the corner at all times. Your parents hate to see you go, and you start feeling uneasy the days before you move, but these feelings disperse once you set foot here. Whether it's Athens or Thessaloniki, there are a few things to do before you start classes:
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 The social security and health insurance agency IKA-ETAM offers Greek citizens and people of Greek descent who live abroad the ability to acquire insurance coverage in Greece. The applicant’s job and whether or not he’s got social security in his country are not taken into account when applying for insurance in Greece.
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 Social security and health insurance are mandatory in Greece once you enter the workforce, and the agency that covers almost every employee or self-employed person is IKA. For business owners, the insurance agency is TEBE.
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Greek citizenship is acquired by birth in Greece or if one of your parents is a Greek citizen. Your mother and/or father are Greek citizens if they are registered in the Municipality Registry of a city/village in Greece.
Also, if you were born out of wedlock to a father that is a Greek citizen and a mother that is a non-Greek, then you automatically gain Greek citizenship if your father recognizes you as his child before you turn 18.
For the above cases you don’t have to apply for Greek citizenship; rather, you may just seek it whenever you wish to use it. For example, just by knowing the above facts you can get a Greek passport.
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The death of a loved one is never an easy case for any family or friend. Even in these hard times, however, in Greece there is always some kind of paperwork to be completed.
After someone’s death in Greece, a death certificate should be issued by a doctor or by the forensic provided by the police. This death certificate should then be validated for its authenticity by the proper authorities (such as the police) and handed over to the representative of the funeral home so that two more documents can be issued: a death record from the Registry Office and the Burial License. In such cases, the funeral home is the best guide for the bureaucracy, as there may be several things needed that are not mentioned in this article.
If you want to transfer the body of a deceased from another country to Greece for burial, the first thing you should do after getting a death certificate and any other necessary documents according to the law of the country in which you live, is to contact the nearest Greek embassy or consulate in order to arrange the transfer of the body or ashes to Greece. Any other questions regarding red tape in Greece will also be answered there.
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 If both of you are non-Greeks that want to have a wedding in Greece you should know that one of you should be an Orthodox Christian. After you’ve chosen the church in which you want to get married, present the priest with the following documents:
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If both of you are Orthodox Christians, but one of you is a Greek resident and the other a non-Greek, here’s what you need to provide the priest of the church in which you plan to get married:
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 If one or both of you are Greeks living abroad and you want to get married in Greece, you can do one of two things:
A. (easy) Get a marriage license in your country of residence without any restrictions. For example, if you get yours in America make sure it says that it’s legal anywhere in the world and not just in New York. Once you get this marriage license, get an apostille for it, translate it at your nearest Greek consulate or embassy and hand it to the mayor that’s going to perform the ceremony in Greece. Ask your consul or representative at the embassy if you need anything else.
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There is a wide range of organizations and college programs that offer a study abroad opportunity. Ask the appropriate office at your school what kind of programs you can take part in so that you can receive credits, too. If you can’t fit a study abroad in your program of studies and you just want to do it for fun, here are just a few of the websites you can look into.
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 We’ve all been to Greek school for several years of our lives. Some of us were forced to go while others were happy to go for the socializing that went on. In the U.S. there are different kinds of Greek Schools. For example the one I went to was in the afternoon and the majority of our teachers were ladies in the community who could speak Greek – no other credentials required. Sure, we had our occasional straight-from-Greece teachers, but that stopped a while back in my community. So, the (little) Greek most of us know how to actually speak is from our grandparents (xoriatiko style) or from our parents if they were first generation. But let’s face it; you can’t usually learn a language properly if you don’t live in the country of origin.
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 Accreditation is like a stamp of approval from an organization that checks the quality of a university’s program of studies or specific programs of study at a university.
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