IN THE ENGLISH LESSON
their expressed feelings of nostalgia and their demand to be allowed to vote from abroad .
UK . This finding confirms the diachronic status of the UK as a major destination for people with high educational credentials . That is in contrast to Germany , a country of traditional migration , still offering economically rewarding opportunities to people with low to medium levels of education . This contrast does not only highlight the difference in the structure of the labor market in those two countries but also the significance of social networks which help a large number Greek migrants to secure employment in ethnic niches in Germany , while the most migrants in the UK find jobs mostly through applications for ( publicly advertised ) vacancies based on their own attainments , through their University , or through recruitment agencies .
Speaking English and study related considerations are the prime reasons why the UK was as the preferred destination country for most of the respondents . The dynamic UK labor market also seems to have played an important role in their decision with many migrants having found a job before they moved to the UK and others migrating there due to expectations they can easily find a good job there . Interesting differences are observed between the pre-crisis and the post-crisis migrants . The former migrated to the UK primarily for reasons related to their studies and the latter due to speaking the language and due to expectations of being able to secure good employment there .
Greeks in the UK appear to be overall satisfied from their life in the UK especially in terms of their employment conditions and financial situation which they evaluate favorably in comparison to their experiences in Greece . They are less satisfied however from their social life and their relation to politics which are respectively reflected on
Social integration and identity
Greeks in the UK have an ethnically diverse group of friends which is also reflected on their self-identification as many them feeling as citizens of the word . In terms of how close they feel to the British and Greek culture , even though , and as would be expected , they feel closer to Greek culture , differences are not that pronounced with most of them being equally comfortable with both cultures . The majority does identify strongly as Greeks though and interestingly without assigning significance to religion as an important component of their Greekness . This finding is corroborated with the survey data on religion according to which half of
the survey participants identify as either nonreligious or atheists and only 20 % of them attend religious services at least once per month .
Half of the Greeks in the UK have not experienced discrimination or xenophobic in everyday life but there is an alarming 20 % of people who had many such experiences , something which becomes particularly alarming for the post Brexit period .
Return plans and aspirations for return are low with only 11 % of the overall sample planning
IN THE ENGLISH LESSON
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