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Abstract
Greek nationalism emerging out of the Enlightenment stressed the primordial belief that Modern Greeks are the descendents of the Ancient Greeks. This type of nationalism was exclusionary and repressive towards foreigners, yet is pervasive in contemporary Greek immigration policy. Greek immigration is incredibly important today because in 2010 alone, 90 percent of detected illegal immigrants in the European Union entered through Greece, a large percentage of these being Muslim immigrants. In this paper I contend that political rights must be granted to Muslim immigrants that call Greece their home, for ethnocultural differences should not preclude political, economic or social integration. Individual characteristics of the members of the community should not determine whether they are worthy of political rights or not. Terms for immigrants should rather be defined in political and institutional terms rather than in ethnic and cultural; only though recognizing the ability for Muslims to participate in the political and economic life of the Greek state can peaceful coexistence materialize. This paper, thus, is particularly significant because it exposes the Greek path dependency on a flawed immigration policy and suggests ways for reconciling national identity in an era of mass migration.