The term brain drain was firstly used by the British Royal Society to describe the migration of scientists from the United Kingdom to the United States of America and Canada in 1950 and 1960. Since then, this term has been reset to generally describe the migration of the most skilled and talented individuals of a country. This term is mainly used to denote the migration of scientists and generally specialized professionals with university education. Typically, these flows are from developing to developed countries (Gibson & McKenzie, 2011).
During the last two decades the role and positive impact of knowledge and human capital have been widespread recognized as a precondition for economic development. Indeed, in this framework, knowledge and human capital contribute to productivity growth and strengthen the exploitation of technology and innovation, while they create external economies that have a significant impact on the economy and society. These factors underline the importance of human resources and highly educated people. In this context, brain drain represents a great challenge especially for those countries that supply highly educated staff to other foreign countries (Labrianidis, 2014). Owing to the still unfolding economic crisis and the reduction of employment opportunities in Greece, an impressive increase of brain drain is observed.
1.2 Study’s objective
The purpose of this study is to shed light into the reasons the migration rate among tertiary educated Greeks has risen so abruptly. In particular, this study focuses on the emigration of those Greeks that have obtained tertiary education and, failing to find a job in their specialized field in the Greek labor market, decide to seek a better future abroad. Moreover, the study aims to identify the most influential reasons for their emigration from the beginning of the crisis. It also briefly discusses the challenges that immigrants face abroad and compares working conditions and life style between home and host countries. Moreover, this study examines the likelihood of returning back to Greece.
Specifically, the main study questions are:
• The main reason for high percentages among talented and well- educated Greeks to move abroad.
• The most important reasons driving the decision to emigrate from the beginning of the economic crisis in Greece.
• What are the challenges and difficulties in the new country that immigrants face?
• What’s the likelihood of returning back to Greece?
1.3 Structure of the study
The current study consists of a total of six chapters, in detail:
Chapter 1: Introduction
The current chapter has some background information, it states the key objectives and the structure of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature review
Refers to the Greek economic crisis and summarizes the current literature that researches the brain drain phenomenon in Greece.
Chapter 3: Methodology
The third chapter highlights the methodology followed in order to succeed in the study’s main objectives, in addition it highlights the major issues of the research conducted.
Chapter 4: Descriptive statistics
Presents the results of the statistical analysis accompanied by tables and graphs, and analysis of the results.
Chapter 5: Discussion Analysis
More in deep analysis and discussion of the statistical analysis outcomes, also it compares the previous study findings
Chapter 6: Conclusions and limitations
The last chapter of the study, provides conclusions and some limitations of the study, beside making recommendations and suggestions for further improvement and future research.
Appendix A
In this section of the study, the questionnaire of the survey is presented.
Since 2009 the Greek economy has been hit by a severe crisis characterized by a large fiscal deficit and a huge unsustainable debt. The Greek crisis is also reflected to the unemployment rate that reached extremely high levels generating a number of issues concerning economic recovery, social cohesion and political stability. In this context, the available data exhibit the presence of the so called brain drain phenomenon. This study addresses the reasons of the high migration rate among tertiary educated Greeks and a number of relevant parameters such as the counties they choose to move, their age and their sex. This study investigates the brain drain phenomenon and tries to identify the impact of human capital loss concerning the prospects of the Greek economy recovery and its long-term growth. Given the fact that the Greek brain drain is a fairly new field of research, there are only a few studies that examine this phenomenon. This study aims to contribute to the further research of brain drain in Greece. The findings of the survey that has been conducted and elaborated through descriptive statistics show that the limited career options was the main reason for Greeks to move abroad while getting a job was the main difficulty that they deal with. This implies that the economic crisis triggered migration as the main reason for moving abroad in fact was preexisting.
Από το 2009 η ελληνική οικονομία έχει πληγεί από μια σοβαρή κρίση που χαρακτηρίζεται από ένα μεγάλο δημοσιονομικό έλλειμμα και ένα τεράστιο μη βιώσιμο χρέος. Η ελληνική κρίση αντικατοπτρίζεται επίσης στο ποσοστό ανεργίας που έφθασε σε εξαιρετικά υψηλά επίπεδα δημιουργώντας μια σειρά από ζητήματα που αφορούν την οικονομική ανάκαμψη, την κοινωνική συνοχή και την πολιτική σταθερότητα. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, τα διαθέσιμα στοιχεία δεικνύουν την παρουσία του λεγόμενου φαινομένου της διαρροής εγκεφάλων ή αλλιώς “Brain Drain” . Η εργασία αυτή εξετάζει τους λόγους για το υψηλό ποσοστό μετανάστευσης μεταξύ των Ελλήνων πτυχιούχων τριτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης και μια σειρά από σχετικές παραμέτρους, όπως τα κράτη που επιλέγουν να μεταναστεύσουν, η ηλικία τους και το φύλο τους. H παρούσα διατριβή ερευνά το φαινόμενο της διαρροής εγκεφάλων και προσπαθεί να προσδιορίσει τον αντίκτυπο της απώλειας ανθρώπινου κεφαλαίου ως προς τις προοπτικές ανάκαμψης της ελληνικής οικονομίας και την μακροπρόθεσμη ανάπτυξή της. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη το γεγονός ότι η ελληνική διαρροή εγκεφάλων είναι ένα αρκετά νέο πεδίο έρευνας, υπάρχουν μόνο λίγες μελέτες που εξετάζουν το φαινόμενο αυτό. Η μελέτη αυτή έχει ως στόχο να συμβάλει στην περαιτέρω έρευνα της διαρροής εγκεφάλων στην Ελλάδα. Τα ευρήματα της έρευνας που έχει διεξαχθεί και αναλύονται μέσα από περιγραφική στατιστική δείχνουν ότι οι περιορισμένες επιλογές σταδιοδρομίας ήταν ο κύριος λόγος που οι Έλληνες επέλεξαν να μεταναστεύσουν στο εξωτερικό, ενώ το να βρουν μια θέση εργασίας ήταν η κύρια δυσκολία που αντιμετώπισαν. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι η οικονομική κρίση πυροδότησε τη μετανάστευση καθώς ο κύριος λόγος για τη μετανάστευση στο εξωτερικό, στην πραγματικότητα προϋπήρχε ήδη.
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