Valley’s Greeks worry about homeland

By Chelsea Telega

The News Outlet

BOARDMAN

Nick Harris sat at a table in the social hall of St. John Greek Orthodox Church reminiscing about his childhood trips to Greece and wondering how that country’s economic turmoil will change his ancestral home.

Harris and dozens of other area residents of Greek descent gathered in late February at St. John’s in Boardman for its annual Lenten-season fish fry, but the financial crisis plaguing Greece dominated many discussions.

“I have friends who own second homes in Greece, and I have cousins who live in Greece still,” Harris said. “From them, I hear that there is a lot of graft in Greece, that people find ways not to pay their taxes in Greece.”

Harris and other Mahoning Valley residents with ties to Greece said they are working hard to stay connected to relatives and friends still living there and facing the turmoil.

Long-standing Greek debt brought about an economic crisis that has wrecked the economy and brought down a government and threatened both Europe’s recovery and the future of the euro. Austerity measures demanded by France and Germany in return for two massive bailout packages have brought about a depression.

All but one of Harris’ grandparents are from Greece, and he said he visited regularly as a child, with his most recent trip six years ago.

Mary Hazimihalis of Youngstown said she still owns property on the Greek island of Kalymnos. She said her former hometown, once home to more than 15,000 people, now has a population of about 9,000.

She said people are unable to find work or sustain themselves in the economy, which is cutting jobs and lowering minimum-wage rates.

Hazimihalis, who lived in Greece until she was 8, said she purchased ground chuck at her favorite supermarket last summer during a visit.

“The thing that I was shocked with was that a kilo of ground chuck is 25 American dollars, and that was this summer. Now, forget it,” Hazimihalis said. “Now, two large pizzas are 30 euros, which in dollars according to what it is now, it’s $39 or $40 for two large pizzas.”

Youngstown native Anna Eleftheriou owns property in Rhodes, Greece, and said the middle class of Greece is struggling.

“Dozens and dozens of businesses have shut down, and restaurants are gone, too,” Eleftheriou said. “Even when tourists come in, they have a package that they pretty much stick to because everyone is trying to save money now for the most part.

“They don’t have jobs anymore; people are out on the street; they’re starving; they have set up all kinds of groups. People are trying to raise money for them, but they’re also trying to help them by giving them food and stuff like that,” she said.

Hazimihalis said it is very difficult for residents to afford food, especially agricultural workers such as her mother-in-law, who works at vineyards and grows olives for olive oil. Those workers receive about 200 euros a month.

She said Greek citizens who have visas are fleeing to other countries and she said she has even encountered some in the Mahoning Valley.

She is concerned about how long the people of her island can survive.

“If you’re cutting their pensions, if you’re increasing their tax revenues that they have to bring in, how are these people going to eat?” Hazimihalis said. “Do they expect these people, the 9,000 that are left, to hold up the economy? How are they going to repay the bailouts?”

Eleftheriou said her main concern is the students in Greece who are just graduating from college. She said poorer families counted on their children to help them after getting a college degree.

“The austerity measures are making a different minimum wage for younger people, which is way less than what they’re giving older people,” Eleftheriou said. “So students have no hope; they think they have to get out of the country.”

George Vassilaros, of Canfield, said his parents own an apartment in Ampelokipoi, Athens, and his grandparents own a home in Evia near the town of Kimi. He said the new financial bailout is an effective short-term plan, but he does not see it being a long-term solution.

“I feel like the bailout is sort of supporting a system that is more convenient to have in place than it is to actually fix,” Vassilaros said. “The austerity measures are definitely something good that needs to happen.”

Eleftheriou said the Greek government has had problems for a long time and citizens always get the sense that they are being cheated.

She said that the country’s taxation system doesn’t make sense most of the time, and converting to the euro was one of the worst decisions the government could have made.

Vassilaros said his family roots are deep enough in the country that he will return, but the fiscal problem is negatively affecting tourism.

Since the family owns its house in Greece, Vassilaros said the rise in cost actually helps their property value.

Hazimihalis, however, still makes house payments and is unhappy with the financial changes the government has made.

“According to my relatives down there, they put it on your electric bill,” Hazimihalis said. “It’s in two installments; if you do not pay it within that time period, they give you a 40-day grace period. If you do not pay it at all then you go to jail.”

Harris said he thinks some of Greece’s problems were imported from the West with the introduction of multinational banks. He said he doesn’t think Greeks ever had mortgages, and now people are losing their homes because they can’t pay their mortgages.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).