By Vasiliki Mitsiniotou
ATHENS
The economic crisis in Greece has led to an ongoing wave of emigration and a seemingly endless brain drain from the country.
Greece was hit harder by the 2007 financial turmoil than any other European country. What was called the Greek government-debt crisis resulted in the launch of the largest sovereign debt default in history in 2012. In subsequent years, the country’s politicians struck three bailout agreements with its international creditors and pushed for the implementation of harsh austerity measures that rocked people’s lives.
Greek government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili, referring to the conclusion of the last bailout program review in the previous week, pointed out that 80 percent of the last bailout agreement in the summer has been completed and front-loaded loans are now being injected into the real economy. “This will help reverse the economic climate in the second half of 2016,” she said, stressing that with the review concluded, the government can turn its focus to people's daily lives and especially to fighting unemployment, which she described as the "great enemy".
Indeed, adult unemployment ballooned from 6.6 percent in May 2008 to 24.1 percent in March 2016, according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority. Many, especially the young, decided to leave the country. Recent research conducted by Greek economic geographers Lois Labrianidis and Manolis Pratsinakis for the London School of Economics shows that one in 18 families has a member who left the country after 2010.
The Greek neo-migrant is portrayed as around 30 years old, highly educated, and mostly emigrating for financial reasons. “Moving abroad may be the best thing to do on a personal level. This is not a problem for those young scientists, but for the state,” Lambrianidis said in a telephone interview.
Half of the migrants that left after 2010 were unemployed back in Greece. Finding better work conditions and better prospects, as well as stability, is also what 80 percent of the migrants look for in their European destinations, half of them particularly in Britain or Germany. What’s new is that 12 percent of these neo-migrants are more than 40 years old, something unprecedented in Greek emigration history.
Also, the vast majority of emigrants neither sends or receives money from the homeland. In that sense, migrant mainly provide subsistence for themselves, unlike earlier emigres.
This time, life abroad is far from ideal. Struggles flare up as they are getting settled as well as later on, and they revolve around the deteriorating the job market. Many times, immigrants also face discrimination.
“You need to keep your eyes and ears open,” Stefanos Koutsardakis, 35, says at a café in Kreuzberg, Berlin. He decided to come here to find work as a civil engineer over two years ago. He points to the difficulties immigrants should keep in mind. “You mustn’t lose your temper but should be cautious around past generation’s immigrants. You will encounter different people, cultures, and mentalities,” he advised.
The recent immigration experience in Germany of 30-year-old Anna Petroulaki, a multimedia journalist, has been positive. “I believed that I would find better working conditions than those in Greece although it was hard looking for a job and taking German lessons at the same time. But in these few months I was lucky and found work related to my degree.”
Things were different for 37-year-old Sinodis Taptas, a translator and foreign language teacher. He decided to emigrate to Germany in 2015 in order to “escape the crisis raging for the fifth consecutive year in my country, to go to the country where I spent a good part of my childhood.” But later he decided to return to Greece, and explained: “I quickly discovered that the German state no longer supports EU immigrants and even interferes in the labor market in ways that significantly reduce the employment opportunities for a graduate immigrant.”
For those remaining or aiming for Berlin, there is support in tackling the initial hardships. For the last six years, Sofia Margariti has worked for the Protestant Church’s civil organization in Berlin as a social worker for Greek migrants. Along with her colleague Maria Aplada, they offer counselling to more than 20 immigrants on social state issues every week.
“In the past, Greek migrants would easily find a job and a place to stay. But now, too many people have come to the city and it is very hard to find a home,” Maria explains outside their office in central Berlin. “Another issue that troubles Greek families is the completely different educational system and the future of their children. The language barrier makes navigation difficult and often in the end children are left without guidance. They may even spend one or two years without knowing what to do or just exit the educational system after 16.”
“People also often report being exploited by migrants of older generations, although since the minimum wage was recently established in Germany, things have got better,” Sofia says. “More and more since the economic crisis people feel the need to talk about their choice to come here. They know that they can survive here but they don’t really want to be here,” she explains.
“There have also been complaints during the crisis about negative Germans comments on the debt crisis against Greeks at work or public services,” Maria adds, “but there has been support too.”
The young academics seem to be stripping Greece of their valuable skills and dynamics. Could something be done to undo this brain drain?
“We would need to have an economy producing complex products for scientists, and perhaps this way some would return. Greece needs to have a better role in the international division of labor and to be more competitive,” says Lambrianidis.
“But this will not happen soon. Another way is to try to exploit this human capital, facilitating every possibility of the Greek migrants to also work intermittently in Greece. This will transfer ideas, knowledge and expertise through effective partnerships with universities, research centers, and by private companies or by establishing their own businesses,” he said.
For the time being, Greek emigrants are not optimistic. “I am afraid that Greek people will face lots of difficulties before getting back on their feet. Things will change in the future but I believe it’s important to understand the causes of the crisis and try to work on that instead of blaming each other,” Anna says.
