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A new wave of Greek emigrants seeking for their happiness abroad

02 May 2010 / 08:05:25  GRReporter
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Difficult economic situation in Greece, increasing unemployment and dark prospects for the next five to ten years are some of the reasons for the new wave of Greek immigrants who want to seek their luck abroad. Journal Katemerini describes the lives of young well-educated Greeks who are submitting resumes in the U.S. and Europe hoping to sattle in a country that would give them a more secure future. According to Greek newspaper Katimerini for the past ten years over half a million of Greeks have sought work abroad, while an average of 7849 Greek CVs arrive daily at the offices of the program for professionals Eures. Greece is on the 14th place in the world list of countries whose citizens wish to work in Western European countries. Spain leads in this list with 77,283 biographies, at the second place is Italy with 61,677. Another bitter truth is that 9 out of 10 Greeks wants to go and live in a foreign country, and 30% of them have followed their dream and do live abroad. The "brain drain" in the country leads to a lack of qualified personnel.

"For three years now a growing interest is observed on the part of the Greeks for the programs proposed. At the same time there is a large drop in the interest of foreigners who want to find employment in Greece. Young people prefer to be abroad, even if they have to work voluntarily," says Yiannis Haristidis representative of the Greek branch of the organization for youth exchange and employment AIESEC. The Vice President of the Hellenic Chamber of engineering Stathis Tsegos said that currently, there are 105 thousand officially operating engineers. In a period of great crisis in the construction industry, many of these professionals are now unemployed. "Going abroad is the only solution for many engineers. Until a year ago, many of the professionals were rejecting lucrative offers to work in Dubai for example. They were happy and they didn’t want to disrupt this peace. Now things have changed," explains Tsegos.

The situation in the sector of medical care is not any brighter. Greek universities "produce" about a thousand doctors a year, while at the same time 800 go in pension. According to a study of the Syndicate of Private employees in Greece today there are about  62 thousand active physicians who serve an average of 185 people. This figure is on average 1:350 for the European Union countries. At the same time unemployment in the country is increasing and nearly 70% of medical students have a plan to continue their education abroad, which will help them settle permanently outside of the borders of Greece.

Tags: EconomyMarketsUnempoloymentemmigration
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