Brain Drain and Brain Loss: Immigrants to Greece

Abstract

The recent migration flows to Greece include some very highly educated people, who are employed as unskilled and manual workers. This paper examines the extent of overeducation of university graduates—both Greeks and immigrants—in recent years. It is found that overeducation among immigrants is about twice as high in comparison with Greeks. Probit regressions indicate that for Greeks the frequency of overeducation is related not to personal characteristics but to the profession and branch of economic activity of individuals, whereas for immigrants the frequency of overeducation is related both to some personal characteristics and to the profession where they are heavily concentrated.

Keywords:

• Overeducation
• Immigration
• Brain Drain
• Greece

Notes

1. For studies on recent immigration to Greece consult, among others, Cavounidis (2002), Fakiolas and King (1996), Kassimis and Papadopoulos (2005), Lianos et al. (1996) and Triandafyllidou (2000).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Theodore P. Lianos

Theodore Lianos is Professor of Economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business, 76 Patission Street, Athens 104 34, Greece