This story was reported by Bill Fallon, Georgette Gouveia and Alex Philippidis
They possess perhaps the worst acronym in history: PIGS. But for all the economic chaos in Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, there appears in 2010 to be little hint of a return to the global freefall of 2008.
Among the recent bad news from these four countries, all members of the European Union, was an additional $18.5 billion in spending cuts announced this month in Spain on top of austerity measures already in place. In Greece, the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels reported this month bookings are off 30 percent nationally. In an Athens neighborhood with some 17,000 taxable swimming pools ”“ about $1,000 tax per year or a dedicated account of $1,000 to be spent on locally produced items ”“ only 300 owners paid the tax. Ireland”™s unemployment rate this month hit 13.7 percent, a 16-year high; Portugal”™s was 10.3 percent, about in keeping with Greece”™s and the E.U”™s 10.1 percent rate. Spain”™s unemployment rate is at 19.8 percent.
The Celtic tiger
In the New York metropolitan region with its deep European roots ”“ a quarter of Westchester County is of Italian descent; 13 percent are Irish ”“ the economies of the Old World still reverberate.
Many immigrants fly beneath the radar of work permits and green cards, tapping established contacts or relatives for work and housing, as in this brogue exchange ”“ perhaps under government radar ”“ on a recent evening on the Bronx-Yonkers border:
No. 1: Who ya workin”™ for?
No. 2: I was workin”™ for Hennesy.
No. 1: He”™s a good man.
No. 2: We finished today. Tomorrow I start with O”™Shea.
No. 1: He”™s a good man.
Marcie Mulligan lives in Yonkers on that same stretch of the central Yonkers-Bronx border that could be Little Ireland, largely encompassing the Roman Catholic parishes of St. Barnabas and St. Paul the Apostle. Her husband, Brendan Mulligan, is from Killeshandra in County Cavan and they subscribe to The Anglo-Celt, the newspaper that serves the Cavan region. “The big headline this week was Seán Quinn Group just laid off 900,” she said, preparing last month to participate in a fundraising walk/run for the Aisling Irish Community Center on McLean Avenue at 990 McLean Ave. in Yonkers. “It”™s not as bad as Greece, but it”™s not good. The picture on the cover was of three people looking at their redundancy slips.
“The Celtic tiger that had roared through the 1990s may not have been as vigorous as was reported,” Mulligan said. “It was a paper tiger as much as a Celtic tiger. It was never as good as it was portrayed. A lot of it was credit-bought. There were a lot of 100 percent mortgages.”
Aisling Moriarty was on hand May 16, as well, to benefit the Aisling center.
The Aisling double-dip prompted the question: Is Aisling (pronounced ash-ling) a common name?
“They never heard of it when I got here,” Moriarty said. “It”™s Gaelic and means dream or vision. When I arrived here as a girl it was torture explaining it.”
The Aisling center, founded in 1996, may have helped alleviate the confusion. It sponsored a 5K fundraiser last month, appropriately from the Bronx into Yonkers and back into the Bronx ”“ one of hundreds of events, classes and social and mental health offerings available.
The Aisling center serves up to 800 Irish immigrants per month from its storefront ”“ about 500 of whom have used the facility before and several hundred who walk in for the first time. Its mission is put forth in its guide titled “Mind Yourself” in which it is understood the reader knows that “the local” on page 6 is not the union hall. Said Executive Director Orla Kelleher of the center, “Another 464 per week use the center for its classes, meetings and events seven days a week.” The office is open six days a week (closed Sunday).
Minding themselves
Though not used in polite company, the terms “donkey” for an Irishman off the boat and “narrowback” for an established Irish-American are still used. But there exists a difference in the distinctions today, according to Moriarty, who said, “There”™s less antagonism between the two. Now, there”™s a sense that we”™re all in this together. There”™s much more camaraderie. I think we all appreciate what America has to offer. I have a friend who moved back. He has no regrets, but he is working harder for less money.”
In recent years, the center has watched its numbers of those seeking help in a new land edge upward, coinciding with economic crises both here and in Europe. “I”™d say it started about four years ago,” said Kelleher of County Kerry.
Before the downturn, Ireland”™s historic brain drain ”“ sending its best and brightest elsewhere ”“ had become a brain gain, notably from Asia and Eastern Europe. Ireland in 2006 accepted 86,900, while just 17,000 emigrated, producing a net in-migration of some 69,900. The figures are tracked by the Irish Central Statistics Office.
Oxford University tracks Irish work permits, reporting in 2007 the U.S. government renewed 1,557 permits enabling Irish citizens to work here. Calls to the Irish embassy seeking more recent numbers were not returned.
Ireland”™s population at 4.2 million is about New York City”™s and about the same as it was in 1861. The six counties of the north have a population of 1.8 million and an economy more directly linked to England than in the Republic in the south.
The Aisling center delves deeply into the immigrant experience, “reaching out not only to the physical, but also to the emotional, social and spiritual needs of the human person.”
In a report issued June 10, state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli noted U.S. companies in the six counties of Northern Ireland employ about 27,000 people, or about 6 percent of the private sector work force there. DiNapoli tracks anti-Catholic discrimination in the Protestant-dominated North as trustee of the $132.6 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund. Those who have left “the troubles” in the North also find the Aisling center and it responds with information and contacts on page 15 of “Mind Yourself.”
Keeping with tradition
The Portuguese are a fascinating seeming contradiction: In love with the sea, they nonetheless take root wherever they go. Witness Westchester County.
“There are strong Portuguese communities in Mount Vernon, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Ossining and Tarrytown,” says Manuel Cabral, owner and manager of Aquario restaurant in the Silver Lake section of Harrison. “We do our best to keep some of the old traditions.”
Those traditions embrace everything from lovely blue-and-white tiles and textiles to bluesy fado music to a savory cuisine that is explored at Aquario and a dozen or so other Westchester eateries.
But though they savor their ties to the old country, Portuguese-Americans haven”™t been much affected by its economic troubles, says David Ramos, president of the Portuguese American Club in Mount Vernon, a community of some 3,000 Portuguese descendants.
“We”™re more affected by what is happening with the local economy,” he says.
Still, Portuguese-Americans ”“ who”™ve undertaken the classic immigrant route from blue-collar to white-collar jobs ”“ send money to relatives overseas, though maybe not as much as before. Ramos says they also help Portugal, where some have second homes, by visiting in August, the sacred Mediterranean vacation month.
Greek financial crisis
From lunchtime through dinner, hungry patrons fill the tables at Lefteris Gyro in Tarrytown, where owner Chris Grammatis says he”™s been closely following developments in the Greek financial crisis.
It hasn”™t affected Lefteris Gyro or its sister eatery, Lefteris Gyro II in Mount Kisco, at least not yet.
“I use a lot of Greek items imported from Greece ”“ olive oil, for instance, and olives. And for years, the Euro was expensive, so the prices of the imported foods, everything was extremely expensive. I haven”™t seen the prices come down yet, but I think eventually it will,” Grammatis predicted in an interview.
“The Greek economy, everybody thought they lived in utopia in Greece until the money ran out. And now, they”™re jumping, but they don”™t know where to jump: Into the fire or into the frying pan,” he said.
Grammatis has seen Greek news reports saying the financial mess has resulted in fewer jobs and lower salaries, for the country”™s educated young professionals. Many are expected to emigrate to the U.S. But that won”™t be evident for several months, says Polyxeni Mastroperrou, director of the Greek Press and Communication Office in New York.
Mastroperrou said no recent figures exist for how many Greeks emigrate to the U.S. annually. During the 1980s, Greece estimated that number at 2,000 ”“ a far cry from the 211,000 Greeks who headed Stateside between 1945 and 1982.
Among them was Grammatis. Born on the Greek island of Lesbos, he arrived with his family in the U.S. at age 11. The family first resided in Birmingham, Ala., where his uncles settled years earlier, then moved to New York two years later in 1960.
Grammatis worked his first job at the Welcome Inn on 176th Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, a luncheonette owned by his father. He died when Chris was 13. The following year, Chris returned with his mother to Lesbos.
A year later he returned to the U.S., starting out as a dishwasher before advancing to grill man, cook and chef at several New York-area eateries. He served in the U.S. Army from 1968-70 ”“ including a year as a chef in Vietnam ”“ then resumed his restaurant career, during which he reckons he owned about 16 eateries at one time or another.
About 15 years ago, Grammatis bought Lefteris Gyro from its original owner, who failed to sustain its initial success. Grammatis expanded the menu beyond Greek snacks and worked “15, 16, 18 hours a day” on improving the food and service.
Today Grammatis, 63, works slightly shorter days ”“ thanks, he says, to a good staff of roughly 40 employees between the two restaurants. Customer favorites include avgolemono, a chicken soup with egg and lemon juice, and the sliced steak platter, a grilled ribeye seasoned with onions, peppers and mushrooms.
Grammatis won”™t disclose revenues, but says his establishments serve locals and commuters living as far as a one-hour car ride away. During the holidays, they are joined by tourists visiting nearby historic sites.
Greece also benefited from tourism over the past decade and a half, welcoming 10 million in 1994 and 16.5 million in 2008, but only 15 million last year as the economy soured. The tourist surge helped lift Greece”™s gross domestic product, which grew between 2 and 4.5 percent each year from 1996 to 2008, when it stood at $343 billion.
Behind the rosy numbers were years of overspending by both of Greece”™s major political parties. Key reasons:
- A credit binge tied to a drop in interest rates since the euro replaced the drachma in 2002;
- Ever-rising government salaries, with union and management enjoying 14 monthly paychecks per year;
- Rampant tax evasion costing $30 billion a year, according to the Federation of Greek Industries;
- Defense spending, which Greece says reached 5.6 percent of GDP in recent years (versus 4.7 percent for the U.S. in fiscal year 2010), fueled by tensions with neighboring Turkey; and
- The 2004 summer Olympics in Athens, with its $11 billion in public works and $1.2 billion security tab.
A year after the Olympic flame was extinguished, Grammatis opened his second restaurant in Mount Kisco, at 190 E. Main St.
Any plans for a third eatery? “There”™s a possibility,” he said. “Opening up restaurants is not hard. The hard thing is to find the right people to work in them.”
