Akis Skertsos: The 2023-2024 biennium when brain drain became brain gain for the first time in 14 years

“The trend of fleeing Greeks and Greek women has now clearly turned into a trend of returning to our homeland.”

“The wave of fleeing of many young people from Greece over the past decade, due to the multi-year economic crisis of 2010-2018, has led to a prevailing perception in public discourse that Greece is still suffering from a brain drain. But is this really the case?”, State Minister Akis Skertos asks in a post, and answers in the language of numbers.

“The comparative figures from Eurostat and Elstat say no. The tendency of Greeks and Greek women to flee has now clearly turned into a tendency to return to our homeland. In fact, in 2023 and 2024 the historically highest repatriation performances in the last several years were recorded.

Let’s look at the actual data based on the time series of Greek citizens who leave and return to Greece from 2010 to 2024 (the year of the latest available data).

A total of 773,296 Greeks have left Greece from 2010 to 2024 and 473,044 have returned. This means that there is a deficit of about 300,000 Greek citizens who are still missing from the country.

However, from 2022 onwards, i.e. after the pandemic, the stabilization and recovery of the economy, the repatriation of Greek citizens is experiencing a steady and remarkable rise that now outnumbers the reverse flight of Greeks abroad.

Specifically, in the period 2022-2024, 130,101 Greeks returned to Greece, about 20,000 more, while 110,223 left.

This reversal of brain drain to brain gainis the first time this has occurred since 2010 and is a very promising trend.

In fact, 2024 is a record year for Greek repatriations, exceeding 50,000 (51,993) for the first time, whereas historically they have hovered between 25,000-30,000 per year. Similarly, while during the decade of the crisis the number of Greeks leaving Greece approached or even exceeded 60,000 per year on average, in 2024 it fell by almost 50% to 32,141.” Skerchos, “these figures do not justify celebrations.

They do, however, confirm that our country has managed to regain the trust of citizens who left during the crisis, so that they are gradually starting to return to it. And that, at the same time, it is giving more opportunities to those who stay here so that they are not forced to emigrate to find their fortune in another country.

There are, of course, still major challenges in wages, housing and the quality of life of young people. But for the first time in many years, the general trend is changing direction.

None of this happened by accident or on its own. The steady reduction of 83 taxes and contributions that improve the disposable income of citizens and create opportunities for investment and new better-paid jobs, the digitalisation of the state that makes everyday life easier for all of us, the incentives for repatriation that give 50% reduced tax income tax for 7 years to anyone returning to work either in the private or public sector, and the reduction of bureaucracy in the recognition of specialized foreign degrees with the now automatic recognition of e.g.This is also our vision: that Greece will once again become the country where our children will want and choose to live, study, work and create here in our country.