Acronym: BrainDrain
Funding agency: National Documentation Center
Total budget: € 30,000
Harokopio University budget: € 30,000
Start date: 10/2023
End date: 06/2024
Project duration: 8 months
Principal Investigator: Manolis Pratsinakis
Description: The severe economic crisis of 2008 brought to the forefront — and to some extent normalized — the migration of highly skilled individuals, a phenomenon that predated the crisis. However, our Knowledge of many aspects pertaining to both the migration and return migration of skilled Greeks is limited. At the same time, the rapid development of information and communication technologies, combined with external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, has given rise to new forms of mobility — including virtual mobility, i.e., forms of mobility that do not require the physical geographic relocation of workers. These new forms of mobility are reshaping the concept of migration as we have known it, as well as the broader notions of work and labor relations.
Using mixed research methods, the project “The Brain Drain Phenomenon and New Forms of Mobility of Skilled Labor in Greece” has a dual research objective:
a) The development of a methodological strategy aimed at achieving the best possible quantitative mapping of the Brain Drain phenomenon in Greece, involving both skilled Greeks working abroad and those working remotely from Greece for foreign companies, as well as return migration of highly skilled worker; and
b) An in-depth assessment of the main new forms of labor mobility characterizing skilled labor in Greece through qualitative research.
Specifically, the study focuses on the following four categories:
i) Skilled Greeks who lived and worked abroad and have returned to Greece (Brain Regain)
ii) Skilled Greeks living in Greece and working remotely for companies based abroad (Virtual Brain Drain)
iii) Skilled foreign migrants living in Greece and working in Greek companies (Brain Gain)
iv) Skilled foreign migrants living in Greece and working remotely for companies based abroad (Digital Nomads)
Keywords: Brain Drain, Brain Gain, Digital Nomads, High-Skilled Migration, Intra-European Mobility