Hatzidakis sees brain regain
About three out of every five Greeks who left in 2010-2021 have returned home, says FinMin
About 600,000 Greeks left the country in the period 2010-2021, with 350,000 having returned, Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis said on Wednesday.
The minister was speaking at the BrainReGain event on the theme “Return to the roots: Challenges, opportunities, initiatives,” where he cited data from Eurostat.
Indeed, according to the figures from the European Statistical Authority, which the government has processed, the number of people with Greek citizenship who left in the period 2010-2021 (for which data are available) came to 592,000.
In the same period, people with Greek citizenship who returned to Greece reached 342,000. Therefore, it can be argued that the net brain drain of this period was 250,000 Greeks. They remain abroad and Hatzidakis said that in order to attract them “we have to change the circumstances that led them to make that decision to leave.”
The Eurostat figures are of interest as they show the variation in flows to and from abroad. Therefore, while in 2009 only 19,799 nationals left Greece, the following year, as the country had already entered the crisis, their number jumped to 28,301 and the following year, in 2011, to 53,210. In 2012 the exodus peaked with 65,264 Greeks leaving for abroad and then the number remained around 55,000, until it began to decline in 2018 to 49,974, in 2019 to 45,478, in 2020 to 33,529 and in 2021 to 34,286.
On the contrary, the return of Greeks to their homeland did not have particularly strong fluctuations, as it was stable throughout the period 2010-2021, between 25,000 and 34,000 people per year. There was no impressive peak, commensurate with the exit abroad, although the highest number of returns occurred in 2019, with 34,074 Greeks. In 2010 it was 25,078, in 2015 30,460 and in 2021 it was 28,392.
Hatzidakis said the effort must continue and must include the creation of highly specialized jobs, corresponding to those Greeks have abroad, the improvement of working conditions, of financing and the business environment, and dealing with red tape.
