Projects \ Greek Crisis Literature Database


Greece: education and brain drain in times of crisis

Pelliccia, A.
IRPPS, Working Paper Series 54. Roma: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Ricerche sulla Popolazione e le Politiche Sociali, 2013

Brain drain is a phenomenon that Greece has experienced since late 1950, which hascontinued in subsequent decades and intensified over the 1990s. Although there was, in the firstdecade of the twenty-first century, a political and economic situation more stable than in the past, the unprecedented economic crisis that Greece is going through has caused, and willcontinue to cause, the increase in brain drain due to poor employment opportunities and strongausterity measures taken by past governments, which depress the level of living standards. Ifthis massive human capital flight increases, which is very likely, it would surely worsen thesituation as Greece would continue to suffer depression effects on its economy and to lose precisely the resources it needs for economic recovery.This article highlights some causes determining the brain drain in Greece, also in the light ofsome scientific surveys that analyse this phenomenon. Moreover, it tries to provide keys toending the crisis and to economic recovery, starting from education and implementation ofmajor reforms aimed at overcoming problems that have long plagued the Hellenic educationsystem and that can enhance its quality, while maintaining commitments to equity and social justice.