Jobless Greeks Resolved to Work Clean Toilets in Sweden

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-07/jobless-greeks-resolved-to-work-clean-toilets-in-sweden.html


Tilemachos Karachalios works as a janitor in Stockholm, forced from his home by Greece’s economic crisis.

As a pharmaceutical salesman in Greece for 17 years, Tilemachos Karachalios wore a suit, drove a company car and had an expense account. He now mops schools in Sweden, forced from his home by Greece’s economic crisis.

“It was a very good job,” said Karachalios, 40, of his former life. “Now I clean Swedish s---.”

Karachalios, who left behind his 6-year-old daughter to be raised by his parents, is one of thousands fleeing Greece’s record 24 percent unemployment and austerity measures that threaten to undermine growth. The number of Greeks seeking permission to settle in Sweden, where there are more jobs and a stable economy, almost doubled to 1,093 last year from 2010, and is on pace to increase again this year.

“I’m trying to survive,” Karachalios said in an interview in Stockholm. “It’s difficult here, very difficult. I would prefer to stay in Greece. But we don’t have jobs.”

[treestar]

1. Why do they need permission to settle, wasn't the EU supposed to be one market?

And if you could work in one you could work in all countries?

[xchrom]

2. No. The euro zone is not 'federalized' like that.

You still have hoops to jump through if you want to move.

[marmar]

3. And those hoops are going to multiply in this current crisis.

[bigbrother05]

6. Sweden isn't fully integrated, still not on the Euro

[Webster Green]

4. Resolved to clean toilets?

I think that headline should read: Reduced to cleaning toilets, not resolved.

[xchrom]

5. or both. reduced first then resolved. nt

[Webster Green]

7. Maybe resolved to survive.

Resolved makes it seem like a goal to achieve.