Greece is holding its parliamentary elections on May 21st and for the first time, Greek citizens who live abroad and fulfil the prerequisites of the relevant law (proven minimum residency in Greece of two years over the past 35 years and submission of tax returns during the last two years prior to the election year), will be exercising their voting rights from their country of residency. Once listed on the special electoral roll, Greek citizens who live outside of Greece can remain on the roll for a period of 8 years.

It’s of the utmost importance, that the Greeks who live abroad are also defined by their country of origin not only as a cultural and as a linguistic community, but also as a political community. It is important that they are also included as citizens of Greece, with political rights and political responsibilities. It is worth noting here that the relevant 2019 electoral law, also provides for the election of three Greek citizens who live abroad, in the 300-seat unitary Greek Parliament.

Up until a couple of weeks ago though, only approximately 23,000 Greek citizens, residing in 69 different countries around the world, had applied to exercise their voting rights from their country of residency, and only 17,400 of them were approved by the Greek state. Considering that the Greek diasporas/Greek origin people around the world constitute a community of roughly 4 million people and that the number of Greek citizens who migrated from Greece during the 2010s, the decade of the crisis, is estimated to be in the vicinity of almost 500,000 people, the number of people who have expressed an interest to vote in the upcoming election is disappointing.

Most of the public discussion so far, regarding the low interest shown by expatriate Greeks to participate in the elections of their mother country, has centred around the strictness of the relevant law. Yes, the law is too strict, and it could have been more liberal, however… Considering the fear and the ignorance Greek political parties and Greeks in Greece have, about the nature of today’s Greek diasporas, this must not come as a surprise, at least to us living outside of Greece.

Furthermore, we must not be surprised that only 177 residents of Australia so far, or 224 residents of Canada so far, or 1,723 residents of the United States so far, have applied to exercise an electoral right in Greece.

The diasporas in these countries are old and removed from the affairs of Greece. Their Greek ethnic identity is understood and expressed nowadays almost exclusively via the lived experience. Political identities, sadly, are in retreat all over the globe… And of course, first of all, most of all and above all, the Greek diasporas around the globe are mostly Australians, Canadians or Americans of Greek origin, for example. They are people who constitute their individual and/or collective identities mostly through the eyes, the experiences, the culture, the language, and the institutions of the dominant communities in their countries of residency.

However, we should be surprised by the low response of all the Greek citizens who left Greece recently, in other words, during the financially and economically difficult 2010s. Why did they not rush to enrol to vote on the May 21st elections? What does this tell us about their relationship with the Greek state, but also about the possibility of their repatriation back to Greece, sometime in the future?