Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EUMIGRE (New European Mobilities at times of Crisis: Emigration Aspirations and Practices of Young Greek Adults)
Période du rapport: 2015-07-01 au 2017-06-30
Approximately 400,000 Greek citizens emigrated after 2009 and to that number we should add an approximately equal number of foreign nationals, who returned to their countries of origin or migrated again. Thus post 2009 outflows have critically increased being comparable in size with the so-called guest worker migration of the post-war decades. However, there are significant qualitative differences starting from the fact that they take place alongside ongoing immigration to or through Greece while the macro-structural causes triggering emigration at present are different, as is its context and infrastructure. Moreover, there are significant differences in the socioeconomic, educational and demographic profiles of today’s “crisis” migrants. While the post-war emigration was largely about low-educated young males moving to Northern Europe to support an expanding industrial machine, the current emigration concerns diverse groups of people comprising primarily young graduates taking a similar route to seek opportunities and prospects in dynamic sectors of the knowledge but also service economy in North European cities. At the same time current outflows differ from the low scale emigration of professionals taking place in the years directly preceding the crisis. Emigration is now less often shaped by career considerations and more often imposed by need or shaped by a generalized mistrust towards institutions and disillusionment from the political system in Greece.
Free movement within the EU makes emigration an easier mobility strategy to pursue, as people increasingly move spontaneously and provisionally, looking for potential opportunities mostly in Western and Northern Europe. At the same time people are not supported by state institutions and their socio-economic background and social capital shape their emigration trajectories. These, in turn, like the backgrounds of migrants themselves, are characterized by considerable diversity. People specialized in fields for which there is high demand can easily secure employment abroad, in many cases even before they actually emigrate. However, people with lower education, or education not valued highly in the labour market of their destination countries, or for which fluency in the language of that country is needed, find it much more difficult to find employment matching their qualifications. If they lack the necessary economic resources to invest further in their training and education or to support themselves until they build their social networks in the receiving country and better their language skills, they may end up working for extended periods in jobs below their skills. Through time, however, the broad picture is one of progress, as the majority of the migrants eventually do upgrade their living conditions while acquiring new experiences, skills and knowledge, which they are very eager to transmit to their home country.