They are called the lost generation: in just ten years, more than 600,000 young Greeks have left the country. All of them are highly qualified - doctors, engineers, IT specialists, scientists. They have gone to countries such as Germany, the Netherlands or the UK to make a career there. Thus begins the report of the TV "Arte" dedicated to the brain drain in Europe.
Its authors introduce us to Irini, who is studying physics at the University of Athens. Like many other people of her age, the young Greek works in several places to support herself. And more and more often I think about whether to go abroad.
"I feel useless"
"There are days when I work 12 hours a day. My partner does the same. We are scalded when we calculate what we could afford if we worked so much abroad. I feel useless. The general feeling is precisely of uselessness," says the young woman.
Specialists are fleeing - we are observing this trend everywhere in Europe. 82 regions are particularly affected - 30 percent of the population of the Old Continent is trying their luck in other countries. The reason: salaries in the regions in question are below the European average. In Greece they are even half as low - the annual salary there is about 17,000 euros.
"These people are not unemployed. They leave the country because they earn too little and because they see no prospects," says Lois Labriandis, professor of economics at the Athens Institute for Alternative Policies (ENA), in an Arte report.
How to retain young graduates?
To bring these people back, some countries are betting on tax breaks. In Portugal, for example, young people between the ages of 18 and 35 pay no income tax in the first year after starting work. And over the next ten years, the rate gradually increases. Italy, on the other hand, halves the tax for a period of five years, and the birth of a child provides an additional bonus of 10 percent. However, this only applies to highly qualified personnel, regardless of whether they are Italian or not. The condition is that they commit to working in the country for at least four years.
In Greece, they are betting on Job Dating - an online platform that mediates between companies and the Greek diaspora, to facilitate the return of young people to the country. The government, in turn, is committed to subsidizing their salaries by up to 70 percent, which guarantees a gross monthly income of 3,000 euros. But does this model work?
"Data from recent years show that financial relief is not enough. This model works only under one condition - the economy must also grow. Otherwise, these measures do not work," says Prof. Labriandis.
A vicious circle results: fewer workers, an aging population, less tax revenue needed to finance healthcare and education or for investments in future-oriented sectors. The result is even fewer incentives for skilled workers, explains "Arte".
At the same time, the European Union spends a third of its budget on reducing territorial disparities in development - a total of 379 billion euros over a period of six years. But the EU cannot stop the brain drain.
Money is not everything
"At the European level, brain drain is seen as a simple circulation of highly qualified personnel within a community. But unfortunately this is not the case, because the EU still functions on the principle of individual states, of mutually competing states," points out economics professor Lois Labriandis.
However, money is not everything. In the last ten years, every second qualified employee who went abroad has returned to Greece. According to a recent study, the main reason for this decision is family and friends, but also the Greek way of life. So the "diaspora generation" is not hopelessly lost to Greece.