Demographic replacement and immigration have emerged as the most important political issues over the last three U.S. election cycles. By 2045, America will be a minority white country – compared to 1960, when the country was 85% white.
Many people debate the founding of America as a country that owned slaves and was essentially a white-ethnostate in the early years of its existence. The common argument is that in the modern day, America has expanded in scope to now include people of many races, religions, and ethnicities, and its demographic makeup is of little concern.
This article is not meant to resolve this American political issue, but to expose a similar pattern in Greece. After the fall of the Communist government of Albania in 1990, Greece opened its doors to thousands of Albanians fleeing the economic and political instability in their home country. Since the 1990s and 2000s, Greece’s native population has been consistently decreasing due to low birth rates and emigration, while the number of non-Greeks living in Greece has risen as a direct consequence.
As recently as 2001, Greece was 93% Greek, which dropped to 88% by 2023 – and these numbers do not account for the 160,000 Greeks who left the country in 2023 and 2024. If these trends continue, Greeks may become a minority in their own country by 2080.
Suppose birth rates continue to fall at the rate at which they are falling, and Greeks continue to leave the country, while the number of immigrants in Greece continues to rise. In that case, the inevitable conclusion is that Greeks will certainly comprise less than 50% of their own country.
In the United States, there is a lively debate about the economic or social merits of immigration, with many of these arguments coming down to disagreements about the reasons for the founding of America, a definition which has certainly changed over time. Proponents of mass immigration argue that America is not, and never has been, a country for a white supermajority, and the definition of American has never been a racial or religious one.
However, these arguments in favor of immigration do not apply to Greece. Greece was a country founded by Greeks with the explicit purpose of being an ethnically Greek and religiously Orthodox state. Moreover, the arguments in favor of mass immigration into Greece have no regard for the founding creed of the Hellenic state and expose a sheer lack of understanding of the founding mythos of Greece and our history of revolution against foreign influence and occupation.
At Kinima Tou Ethnous (KTE), we believe that demographic replacement constitutes an existential threat to the survival of Hellenism globally. Without a Greek homeland and a Greek supermajority, Hellenism would certainly disappear in Europe and the world. Because of the multi-ethnic and multi-racial realities of American society, many Greek Americans and Europeans are prompted to believe that the nation-state is an abstract concept and the existence of multiple ethnicities within the borders of a political state has no bearing on daily life and national performance. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
America and Greece have shown us that assimilation is a concept that appears only in theory but does not produce results in the real world. Many Greek Americans are quick to point out that we have done an excellent job at assimilating into American culture and that we represent the success story of assimilation. However, KTE believes that the assimilation of Greeks is contingent upon the changing definition of what it means to be American. The Greeks gave up their language but kept their religion and their religious values, in conflict with the Anglo-Saxon Protestantism that dominated America during its formative years.
If we choose to accept unlimited immigration in hopes of assimilation, we can assume that the definition of what constitutes a Greek will also necessarily change. Plato defined a nation as a group of people with a shared language, culture, religion, history, and blood. By introducing people who do not share these five key qualifiers into Greece, we will be forced to redefine Hellenism in ways that are completely foreign to our ancestors.
Of course, people can try to adopt culture, learn a language, or convert to a new religion, but we can not change blood or a shared history, which cannot be adopted or assimilated.
Proponents of mass immigration are also quick to point out the coexistence of various groups alongside Greeks throughout history, such as Vlachs, Armenians, and Slavs. However, these groups intermingled with Greeks prior to the creation of the Greek nation-state, and their coexistence does not discount the right of the Greeks to a political state where they are the majority or our right to self-determination as a people.
Simply because Greeks have at various times lived among various groups does not mean that the Greek people exist and have maintained a presence on the land for thousands of years. If anything, the Hellenic people are the perfect example of cultural continuity and the maintenance of society and civilization across time and space, regardless of the political situation.
KTE firmly believes that national policy should be based on two core principles: primarily to make decisions based on the will of God – rather than the will of politicians – and to serve the Greek people at every opportunity. Mass immigration of non-Orthodox and non-Greek people does not serve either of these principles. When crafting immigration policy, we must find a balance between our responsibilities as a member of the European community, and our responsibilities to our own people.
Work visas must remain temporary and there must be a logical limit to how many foreigners come and work in Greece. The acceptance of refugees must be temporary and only granted to those in dire need. We should not provide government services such as healthcare to people who provide no tax benefits and have no stake in the success of the Greek state.
Mass immigration will not stop without policy changes, and the continuation of these trends will result in only one thing: the dissolution of the Greek state and the extinction of the Greek people.