Social problems in the early 90s

Migration

The Greek people were in a bad condition after the WWII and the civil war that ended in 1949. At that time there was unemployment and also starvation in Greece. Due to the civil war and poverty that destroyed country site there was major move in big cities. People where seeking a better life in big cities. The phenomenon of urbanization was dominant and affected the qll aspects of society in the following decades. People underestimate the villages as they were abandoned and the rural sector so driven urbanization, mainly to find work in services. 

Albania immigrants deporting in Italy

But life was no better in big cities as well. Greece and its economy was vastly destroyed by the WWII and the civil war that followed. In middle 50s and 60s vast number of Greeks mainly young people fled the country as economical immigrants moving to developing economies such as Australia and Germany. The phenomenon stopped in early 70s where the Greek economy grew in a level that could support its population and provide a decent level of living. In the late 80s and early 90s witch is the period we are interested there was no migration movement from Greece to other countries. On the contrary Greece became a country that accepted immigrants from other countries especially people from eastern Europe mainly Albania and Bulgaria and some former CCCP republics.

Criminality

The immigrants that arrived in this period (early 90s) affected Greece in both good and bad way. Although they busted the economy by providing cheap labour hands, they unfortunately affected criminality by raising it to a lot higher levels that it used to be. The "feeling of safety" that Greeks had by that time was devastated by the imported criminality. Burglaries, theft, murders etc were multiplied and that caused concern and also racism against the immigrants who were accused for the phenomenon.

Economy

Greek economy had many phases after the WWII. Some good some not so Good. In the late 80s and early 90s the economy was going through a major crisis. Although efforts were made to its recovery, debt s and inflation increased consecutively.

The Greek industry could not front the competition from cheaper foreign products imported. Many industries were closed due to the economic crisis, so the state was forced to import a large proportion of products. To overcome these problems the country took loans from more developed countries. Also many sailors and Greek immigrants abroad send to their relatives money which helped the economy to some extent.

Despite this, social inequalities and the creation of social classes didn’t take long to appear. So some people were in a better economical situation than others. From the other hand, many jobs were created that favored many people and the salaries of employees increased slightly. So the country was going through a crisis period but it hadn’t reached at the critical point of poverty and misery of the people. Generally there was a filling of uncertainty but nothing comparing to the today situation. Unemployment was less than 10% but at that time it was thought to be high. (today it is 27%)

One tool used to mitigate the effects of lack of competitiveness of greek economy was the local currency (drachma) inflation that was used in great extent. This again caused a grate concern among citizens and uncertainty for the future. People with savings due to inflation would invest in land or houses to save some of their economies. On its turn this created other problems as communities would grow in size without the proper planing and forecast. Quality of urban living deteriorated at that time.

Greece went dry

1991 305, 1992 176 and in 1993 120 millions cubic meter

A strange (today) problem that occurred at that time (early 90s) was the lack of enough fresh water in major cities especially Athens. This was due to a combination of long dry weather contritions (1987-94) and the luck of planning for adequate quantities of fresh water. Combined with the fuct that Athens has half the Greek population it ended up being a huge problem. There was a period (Autumn of 93) that Athens had water for less than a week. Laws were enforced that banned inappropriate use of water (it was illegal to wash a car or water plants/flowers in your garden f.e).

Fortunately rain arrived and problem was solved for that year. Soon later great water reservation and supply contradictions were deplored to solve this problem permanently.


The problem of water was in many places in Greece especially islands.  Mainly in the summer time were the population more than doubles due to tourists and the dry weather conditions.

Drugs

Since the beginning of the civil war was still the spread of drugs to soldiers for resistance. The import was made by the English ports in Athens. Later they spread throughout the country . The target was clearly the youth. It is consumed mainly in the largest cities, Athens, Patras and Piraeus without this meaning that they didn’t trade in smaller areas. The amount spent in Athens and Piraeus was touching the 4 kg a day (mainly heroin and cocaine) and Patras to the poorest part of the city is estimated 40% of users (cannabis). The problem of drugs was mainly apparent in big cities rather than in the country site.

Car/road accidents

Greece at that time had one of the biggest rates of car accidents among other European countries. This was due to two factors. Firstly the road network in the 90s was extremely bad and outdated and the second due to bad habits of Greek drivers who usually would break the driving law in every chance they had (not wearing belts, speeding etc). As small city was killed in the roads every year in an extent higher than other European countries.

Other social problems include the usual problems fount in modern societies such as drugs, athletic violence, political fanaticism etc.