Greece’s development model has to change

We live in a globalized society where countries that produce high value-added products are the winners in international trade. Therefore, because we want our country to be among the winners, we need a strategy for quality development which will be based on specialized professionals and will aim to gradually increase production and high value-added services. However, since the 1990s, Greece has been affected by the flight of skilled individuals and professionals abroad – the brain drain. This phenomenon worsened during the crisis.

There are no official data on the brain drain in Greece. The most recent empirical study concerns individuals with doctorate degrees and shows that 13.4% currently work abroad, while 31.3% have worked abroad at some point. More generally, I would hazard the estimate that the brain drain in Greece is still in the order of 300,000 to 500,000 people.

Despite the influx of foreign direct investments and the increase of certain Greek companies that employ scientifically trained staff, the problem remains. There is still limited demand for specialized professionals both from the private sector, as Greek companies do not produce complex knowledge and technology-intensive products or services, and from the state, as governments do not understand the importance of scientific potential for more efficient operation of the state apparatus and its services (health, education etc).

Thus, the deficit of labor supply and demand leads to high rates of unemployment, underemployment, alternative employment, inability to find jobs with prospects etc, causing trained professionals to migrate. Greece’s skilled professionals migrate to countries with high innovation rates, often found in the global metropolises. The professional potential isn’t the only reason relocation seems attractive; those societies appear well-organized and have strong policies that attract talent – the race for talent.

The brain drain has severe effects on our country: loss of developmental, social, cultural and national dynamics, and the undermining of the country’s transition process to a higher value-added economy. It creates shortages in critical industries (e.g. IT and medicine) while also exacerbating the demographic problem.

Therefore, if we want those who left to return and others not to leave, the reasons that led to their exodus must be eliminated, or at least mitigated. In order to achieve this, policies that can change the country’s long-term development model to an economy favoring knowledge are necessary. This will create more jobs for scientists, both in the private and public sectors.

In the short and medium term, policies are needed to support entrepreneurship and innovation and to strengthen self-employment among graduates. It is necessary to strengthen startups, R&D and innovation in companies, innovation and entrepreneurship in universities, as well as academic research activity. And of course, as a matter of priority, staff recruitment is needed at universities and research centers, in the public health system and more widely in the public sector, naturally taking into account the Greek economy’s capability.

The state should also address specialized professionals in the second and third-generation diaspora (who may number up to 8 million) while recognizing they have established strong ties with their host countries. Their “virtual return” should therefore be considered as an additional goal – i.e. the connection of professionals living and working abroad with the Greek economy. This is exactly the goal that the ECB serves today with the platform “Bridges of Knowledge and Cooperation” (knowledgebridges.gr).

Finally, policies should be developed that attract foreign professionals and scientists to come and work in Greece, as well as from Greece.

Greek companies, with exceptions, do not produce complex knowledge-intensive products or services.

Lois Lambrianidis is an economic geographer and emeritus professor at the University of Macedonia.