Thessaloniki
The port of Thessaloniki has likewise regained its hinterland after 1990 and is a gateway between Eastern Europe and the European Union. As a Mediterranean city, Thessaloniki is also a port of entrance into Europe for migrants and illegal refugees from Afghanistan, Africa and the Middle East, many of them entering via Turkey.
As in Ceuta, Dublin and Hamburg, urban renewal programmes have been directed at the former inner city port area. Likewise, former port-related opportunities for casual labour are disappearing, leaving the former dockworkers, stevedores and seamen to compete with the migrants for the few remaining opportunities for urban subsistence, mainly street vending. Here, they come into conflict with the authorities´ plans for improving the city´s image by the renewal of urban space. In Thessaloniki, the same small group of NGOs is dealing with the problems of homelessness and refugee settlement.