strange maps | by frank jacobs
It ain’t easy being Greece. Last year, the eurozone crisis had the country flirting with insolvency. Athens narrowly avoided being kicked out of the common currency. This year, it’s the refugee crisis.
Not that waves of rubber dinghies landing on Lesbos are a new phenomenon. For a number of years now, Greece’s islands have been stepping stones for huge numbers of migrants crossing from Turkey into Europe.
Typically, they move north to seek asylum in Germany, Sweden and the other promised lands of northern Europe. But that route has been blocked off this week, by a cascade of border closures, moving from north to south across the Balkans.
Austria was first to bar migrants from transiting its territory, quickly followed by Slovenia and Croatia, both also EU members, and Serbia and Macedonia, both outside the EU.
As a result, close to 14,000 refugees are now trapped at Idomeni, on the Greek side of the border with Macedonia, in conditions described by a Greek government minister as “atrocious”.
Germany’s chancellor Merkel has condemned the border closures, saying they put Greece in a very difficult position. She stated that a resolution to the crisis would need to come from the EU as a whole, not from disconnected measures by individual states.
The EU and Turkey are in fact finalising a plan that would send back all migrants arriving in Greece to Turkey. In exchange, the EU would take in an equivalent number of Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey.
But that’s not a done deal yet, so migrants are still streaming into Greece, and are now unable to move on. “If we don’t reach a deal with Turkey, Greece won’t be able to bear the weight for long”, Merkel said. Ankara, in any case, has said that the ‘one-in, one-out’ plan does not cover Syrian migrants already in Greece.
Is there a danger that Greece, impoverished by the eurozone crisis and strained by the refugee crisis, will collapse under its burden? Here are three maps that give an idea of the size of the problem. All three are cartograms, distorting the area of the countries on the map to reflect the number of refugees arriving by sea. The first one covers the period 2006 up to and including 2014.
Maritime migration clearly is a Mediterranean issue: there are no boat people landing on Europe’s Atlantic, North Sea or Baltic coasts. Italy was the favoured destination, with nearly a third of a million people arriving. Greece had less than 90,000 arrivals over the same nine years, Spain had just under 40,000 and Malta almost 14,000.
By 2015, the figures have exploded, and the stream has shifted. Migration to Spain and Malta has all but dried up; Italy is taking in a lot of people in absolute terms (almost 145,000 in a single year), but those figures are overshadowed by Greece’s – more than 750,000 arrivals just for 2015 alone.
The last map, based on figures for the first two months of 2016, shows the crisis lessening for Italy, but worsening for Greece, with almost 130,000 refugees arriving in January and February alone.
Will the closed borders keep potential migrants from making the dangerous crossing into Europe? Or will it turn Greece into Europe’s refugee dumping ground?
Maps created by Benjamin Hennig, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and found here and here at Views of the World, his personal website, which contains a lot more cool maps.
Strange Maps #771
Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.
Comments:
Hey, all of you who say the Greek coast guard should send the refugees back by “chasing their boats to Turkish waters” or whatever: You don’t really mean that. Just imagine all these overcrowded boats which are about to sink,do you really want to drown all these people? Apart from the fact that it’s probably illegal.
Europeans have made too many mistakes. Most EU countries have given Italy the cold shoulder when refugees had to be pulled out of the water on their way to Lampedusa. Back in 2001, Merkel (then not chancellor yet, but chairperson of the CDU) dumped a report in the drawers that suggested a clear immigration policy for Germany, in an attempt to look separately on refugees, asylum seeker, and immigrants. She dumped it back then because it was “doing harm to the party”.
Does anybody really believe people would stop running away from their miserable lives just because DonaldTusk says “dont’ come”?
Turkey hosts more than a million refugees of the syrian conflict. Somehow not on the map, though.
Thanks for using “overshadowed” rather than “drowned”.
Germans need a scapegoat and they found it as Greece and yes it’s true, they want to turn Greece into Europe’s refugee dumping ground & ultimately get rid of the poor tiny country.
you’re not making any sense. Greece does not border with Germany, nor are Germans sending any people to Greece. Also, Germany has taken the brunt of the immigrant numbers thus far. I suggest that if Greeks don’t want to drown in immigrants, effective border control might help.
P.s. I suppose if requiring fiscal responsibility from the Greeks is ‘scapegoating’ then sure, why should the rest of the EU pay for Greek laziness & corruption? Greece has serious issues with collecting even fundamental taxes, corruption, bribery, nepotism are rife there, yet somehow when that’s pointed out, its ‘scapegoating’ ?
That shows how stupid you are. 1st, Greeks arent lazy, that’s just a tall German lie. Greeks on average work more hours in a week than the Germans but Greece has no manufacturing industry, hence it CANNOT export itself out of economic crisis no matter what it does.
2nd, How is Greece supposed to patrol its own territorial waters when Merkel’s favourite ally Turkey constantly violates Greek waters & airspace while NOT allowing the Greek coast guard intercept the incoming migrant boat and chase them back to Turkey. Now you can go lick Erdogan’s butt !
Sounds like excuses for greek inaction. Turkey does not control the aegean nor does turkish navy convoy the boats. Neither side does anything to stop the immigrants.plainly, money is being made by both sides.
Cheating on taxes, institutionalized corruption is a way of life in greece. Why do so many buildings in greece (Hotels in particular) look unfinished, despite being in business for decades? Owners don’t pay tax untill work is officially finished….work opportunities always go to relatives, officials depend on cronyism and family connections. A bribe will get you nearly _anything_ when dealing with officials, and everything is negotiable. Not that greece is alone in this tendency; generally the further south you go in europe, the more ‘flexible’ the rules are, but greece is an outlier. Even the word ‘nepotism’ is greek….
Notice all this griping about germany & germans started about the time of the greek default, before then greeks were vocal about loving germans and all the german money.
I like greece & greeks in general, but when a central european who grew up amidst socialist graft sees the country as corrupt, the west sees them as almost incorrigable. The idea that somehow greeks deserve 15 months pay /year, 32 hour work weeks and retirement pay bigger then the avearge eu income – all funded by the EU is beyond ridiculous.
The refugee crisis, or rather the greek inaction w/regard to it is just a cynical way of trying to extort more money fromthe EU. Guess what? Its having an opposite effect to the one greek neo-nazi govt. Intended: Turkey will get the funds and a pass to schengen. In the meantime all of greece’s neighbors are closing their borders … with greece.
Strodensky Jerzy KaltenbergTax avoidance is a general problem in Greece but it’s way LOWER than Italy along with shadow economy & corruption, but unlike Italy which has a robust industrial manufacturing sector, Greece has no manufacturing industry, so it’s trapped under an excruciating short-term debt burden and has to rely solely on tourism.
About the migrants arriving on inflatable dinghies: I don’t know how you have the gall to bring up claims about so-called Greek “inaction” . You know what: The Greek coast guard in civilian attire sometimes used to bludgeon the refugees with truncheons and then pushed them towards the Turkish littoral, but immediately after those sorts of incidents, the Turkish side began protesting loudly about “the ill-treatment of the hapless souls at the hands of the Greek thugs” and showed up their frigates to intimidate Greece about the push-backs. So Greece was left with no option but to receive the migrants.
You and your Merkel’s ulterior motive in distorting the facts and pandering to the Turkish culprits who are the prime sponsors of the vicious ISIS terrorists and main instigators behind the execrable atrocities in Syria, is indeed most unconscionable.
Now you’re smoking something truly bizarre. Isis is _not_ supported by the eu or turkey, ( which you imply) but by salafi islamists in uae, saudi, and other rich me. countries. In addition to this, the refugees are overwhelmingly fleeing the Assad regime & their brutal campaign on the civillians in Syria, not isis. Bad as isis is, shia have less to fear them than they do the govt. tactic of bombing, gassing & outright murder. Assad is universally hated by the majority of syrians; bringing in the russians to bomb population centers and hospitals isn’t helping this ‘image problem’ any. Why is there war in syria? Because an alawite dictator can’t stay in power in that country without massive foreign support. Isis wouldn’t have a foothold in syria if assad hadn’tmanaged to allienate the majority of syrians
Bludgeoning people in life rafts is at the least ill treatment( no matter who does this), but passing them onto the rest of europe to handle is simply irresponsible. Shengen countries are supposed to protect the borders of the eu, not allow people not entitled to be in europe at all to traipse where they think they’ll get the best handouts.
Re: Angela. Yes, its mrs Merkel an I, we have the same ulterior motive. Probably the same tailor, too.
Don’t worry, Strodensky. Greece survived four hundred years of the Turkish yoke; we will survive this. And we will be here long after those who wish us harm are gone.
I’m just being realistic. Instead of defiantly protesting too much and drawing the ire of the conceited Germans, Greeks could’ve negotiated prolonging the maturity of their debts by some 30 years (just like Portugal had done) and thus “effectively” halving Greece’s debt burden. But they did choose a combative stance and now they’re paying the price.
Greece hasn’t got a formidable manufacturing industry which makes it practically impossible for Greece to export high value added products. A nation cannot solely rely on the tourism forever! The Greek people ought to have been cognisant of their capacities & shortcomings and act accordingly.
){kind=link}