Economic turmoil in the Mediterranean country is spurring a third wave of immigration to the bustling Greek enclave in Queens

By Kristina Bogos / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

*photo: Dimitris Pinos has been the manager of Mediterranean Foods, a Greek supermarket in Astoria, Queens, for 33 years. In recent months, about ten Greek immigrants come into the store every day asking for job applications, Pinos said.

Astoria is once again living up to its reputation as a home away from home for Greeks as it embraces a new influx of immigrants fleeing economic turmoil in the Mediterranean country.

 

But the new emigres also face an uncertain future in the United States as they try to navigate complex immigration rules.

Danae Vasiliadou immigrated to Queens from Thessaloniki just three months ago. While she struggled to find a job, she found solace within Astoria’s Greek community.

“It doesn’t really feel like I moved to the States. It’s like I moved to a village in Greece,” said Vasiliadou, 25. “Everybody is Greek, the places are Greek.”

With the economic crisis deepening, about 5,000 Greeks fled their homeland for Astoria in the past year, compared to about 2,000 a year in the previous half decade, according to Nicholas Alexiou, professor of sociology at Queens College. Alexiou has studied Greek immigration to Astoria for over twenty years.

Many are under the Visa Waiver Program and come to test the waters with a temporary three-month long visa, while others arrive with tourist or student visas.

“Now, it’s mainly professionals. Either they are doctors, teachers, people who have some kind of degree already in Greece,” Alexiou said. “Here [immigrants] are willing to take any job to support their family and themselves.”

Others, like George Hatzopoulos, 22, from the suburbs of Athens, moved to Astoria three years ago to live with his grandparents and attend college in the U.S. He is a part-time student at Queensborough Community College, juggles two jobs and interns at a music studio in Long Island City.

“I’ve been doing things I could never possibly think to do in Greece,” Hatzopoulos said recently while on break at his job at Oveila restaurant on 30th Ave. “I can afford to have an apartment, I can afford to have a car, I can afford to pay tuition.”

Hatzopoulos, a U.S. citizen who moved to Greece at the age of 5, was no stranger to financially instability while he was there. For the past three years he has been sending money back home to his immediate family.

 

  Like Vasiliadou, Hatzopoulos belongs to a new wave of Greek immigrants that are fleeing the country because of hard economic times. The first wave arrived in the 1920s, and the second between 1965 and 1980. While Greece enjoyed economic prosperity after joining the European Union in 1981, many moved back to their homeland, Alexiou said, but are now returning to Astoria hoping for a better future.

Some Greeks are seeking jobs by calling diners from overseas before they migrate, while others already in Astoria make daily trips to local stores.

About ten people walk into Mediterranean Foods, a local Greek supermarket, every day asking for job applications, said Dimitris Pinos, who has been the store’s manager for 33 years.

“Everyday I see new people coming, which is a surprising thing for us,” Pinos said.

As job applications continue to soar, inquiries about gaining permanent residency in the U.S. have also been on the rise, attorneys said.

Spyros Karidis, Astoria-based immigration lawyer who opened shop 2 1/2 years ago, said he frequently receives phone calls from Greece about gaining permanent residency. But many Greeks, he said, are unaware of the difficulties within U.S. immigration laws.

Like millions of immigrants before them, recent Greek arrivals find out they have to stand in the back of a long line awaiting permanent residency status.

That line may get shorter for some with the DREAM Act, which would grant conditional permanent residency for undocumented immigrants who arrived as minors and graduate from a high school in the U.S.

But as their homeland continues to navigate rough economic waters, Astoria continues to be a beacon of hope for many Greek immigrants.

“Because these times are really hard like this, once you hear ‘Greek just moved’ you kind of tend to stick together and help out each other [with] whatever anyone needs,” Hatzopoulos said. We “try to figure something out to help each other.”