What does the future look like for young people in crisis-hit Greece, where years of hardship and sky-high unemployment were followed this week by bank closures? The answer: Self-imposed exile.
“I don’t see a future in Greece,” Dani Iordake said.
The 21-year-old, who has self-styled tattoos on his arms, was forced to drop out of university to help his mother pay the bills.
Photo: EPA
“It’s a beautiful country ... [but] I couldn’t imagine living here and struggling every day,” he said.
With youth unemployment at nearly 50 percent and a breakdown in negotiations with Greece’s international creditors heralding further financial woes, many of Iordake’s contemporaries are packing their bags.
More than 200,000 Greeks have left the country since the financial crisis began in 2010, according to Endeavor Greece, a local chapter of an entrepreneurial promotional group. They have been driven away by a dearth of jobs, pitiful wages, endemic corruption and lack of meritocracy.
Thirty-two year old Christos Pennos left in 2013 because of a scarcity of opportunities in the scientific field, and managed to get a post as a university researcher in Norway.
“My brother lives in Spain, my best friend in Germany. I have a lot of friends in Britain, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and eve n in Poland,” he said.
At first he had only planned to spend two or three years in Norway, but now says he intends to stay longer — although he admits: “I really miss my friends and family, and most of all the Greek sun and Greek food.”
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing SYRIZA party were elected on the promise to help those worst hit by years of austerity, but instead have been forced to impose capital controls and close banks.
Friends Marilena and Josie, 22 and 33, catch up over a beer and falafel sandwich, which they eat on a bench in the street while they discuss their future.
As a massage therapist, Josie cannot find full-time work and has been forced in the past to take babysitting and cleaning jobs to make ends meet.
“Before the crisis, I was paid 1,300 euros [US$1,438] net. Today, I don’t get even half that, gross.”
Her boyfriend, a Syrian refugee she met while volunteering for a migrants association, is currently in the Netherlands and she is thinking of going to live with him.
Marilena might also pack up and head to Germany, where her brother lives. He signed up with the military there and earns 2,000 euros per month with practically no expenses, she said.
However, the decision to leave her homeland is not one she takes lightly.
“It’s an option, not a must,” she said.
Unemployed civil engineer Giannis Grigoriou does not have the luxury of waiting the crisis out, and is planning to emigrate to an Arab country because he thinks he would have more luck finding work.
“The situation is awful. Had I known this four to five years ago I would have studied to be a chef or hairdresser, which have more appeal in this country,” he said.
Greek emigration, particularly among the young, “is not a new phenomenon, but it increased considerably during the crisis,” Thessaloniki University economic geography professor Lois Labrianidis said.
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