The
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
community in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
numbers around 25,000 to 35,000 people.
History
Although Greeks were already living in Belgium before 1956, most migration from
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
to Belgium happened between 1956 and 1964. An estimated 20,000 Greeks were then attracted as
guest workers
Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...
for the mining industry. They ended up mainly in the city of
Mons or the mining region in the province of
Limburg
Limburg or Limbourg may refer to:
Regions
* Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium
* Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands
* Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...
. Gradually, they also migrated to
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, where, among other things, a Greek community settled around
Brussels-North railway station.
Since the
Financial crisis of 2007–2008
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
, which hit Greece hard on the socio-economic front, an increasing number of Greeks started migrating for work to Belgium.
Smedts, S. (2011). Grieken zoeken zekerheid in België
in ''De Morgen
''De Morgen'' (Dutch for ''The Morning'') is a Flemish newspaper with a circulation of 53,860. The paper is published in Antwerp, Belgium.
History and profile
''De Morgen'' originates from a merger in 1978 of two socialist newspapers ' (meaning ...
'', 4 november 2011
Notable people
Iosif Poursanidis
Composer-musician, Founder of the Hellenic Community Turnhout-Kempen
* :fr:Jean Daskalidès, chocolatier
* :fr:Christos Doulkeridis, politician
* Leonidas Kestekides, chocolatier, founder of the Brussels-based Leonidas
Leonidas I (; grc-gre, Λεωνίδας; died 19 September 480 BC) was a List of kings of Sparta#Heraclids, king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, and the 17th of the List of kings of Sparta#Agiad dynasty, Agiad line, a dynasty which claimed d ...
chocolate company
* Viktor Klonaridis
Dorian Victor Klonaridis (Greek: Ντοριάν Βίκτωρ Κλωναρίδης, born 28 July 1992) is a Greek-Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger or a second striker for Super League club Atromitos.
Career AEK Athens
Klo ...
, football player
* Charly Konstantinidis, football player
* Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Thivaios brothers, DJ-s
* Katerine Avgoustakis, singer
* Daphne Patakia , actress
See also
* Belgium–Greece relations
* Greek diaspora
* Greek people
References
External links
eokb.eu
Hellenic Federation of Communities in Belgium
Bilateral relations between Greece and Belgium
Greek Orthodox Church in Belgium
Greek embassy in Brussels
Greek diaspora by country, Belgium
Belgian people of Greek descent,
Ethnic groups in Belgium
{{Europe-ethno-group-stub