Australian Greek Welfare Society Provides Financial Assistance to Greek Immigrants

The Australian Greek Welfare Society (AGWS) announced plans to create a new fund to financially assist newly-arrived Greek immigrants trying their luck there.

According to AGWS, founded 40 years ago, the number of new arrivals is on the rise and an increasing number of Greeks are turning to their office for assistance.

The majority of new arrivals are Greeks who already have ties with Australia – many of them lived in Australia years ago or are the descendants of Australian citizens.

Now, AGWS is appealing to all Greek Australians to financially support its work. All money raised will be spent on furniture, clothing and food for those facing economic difficulties with their first expenses.

This is the latest twist in Greece’s new emigration saga of how debt-stricken Greece is forcing people to leave. Greeks are fleeing the diminishing job security, a sharp increase in unemployment (now 17.7 percent) and drastic budget cuts to social services. It’s a stark reminder of the postwar migration pattern (between 1946 and 1977) when as many as one million Greeks emigrated for jobs.

The majority of them (60 percent) went to northwestern Europe, mainly Germany; some 160,000 settled in Australia, 135,000 in the United States and 100,000 in Canada.