AN ever-growing number of expatriate Greeks have been returning to their country, which has largely recovered from a decade-long economic crisis, according to an OECD study released Friday.
In 2023, for the first time since the crisis, the number of Greeks returning to their country exceeded the number of those leaving with 46,000 returns and 37,000 departures, the OECD reports.
According to Eurostat, 773,000 Greek citizens left the country between 2010 and 2024, while 473,000 returned during the same period.
Starting in late 2009, Greece required a series of bailouts from its European Union partners, who imposed several packages of tough spending cuts and economic reforms. Greece’s unemployment rate peaked at 26 per cent in 2012 but has since fallen back to eight per cent.
Greece’s labour ministry credits the return of expats to modernisation measures including the digitization of public services, cutting red tape, reducing income tax for those returning from abroad, and the recognition of medical qualifications obtained abroad.
However, more than 800,000 people born in Greece still live in OECD countries, the majority of them in the United States, Australia, Canada and EU countries. — AFP
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