IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v26y2021i3p544-561.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Narratives of Leaving and Returning to Homeland: The Example of Greek Brain Drainers Living in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Athanasia Chalari

    (University of Tokyo, Japan; University of Northampton, UK)

  • Efi-Irini Koutantou

    (University of Essex, UK)

Abstract

Narratives of why people migrate can be primarily associated with the study of migration in terms of people’s drivers of leaving and returning to homeland. Greek people have been very familiar with the idea of leaving as well as returning home, throughout modern Greek history; yet, due to the ongoing Greek crisis and prolonged austerity, a new migration wave has been formed associated with young professionals and scientists (brain drainers). This study utilises the qualitative collection and analysis of 31 narrative interviews contacted with Greek brain drainers currently living in the UK, in an attempt to examine, understand, and explain the drivers of leaving and returning to homeland. We argue that factors leading to the decision of leaving as well as the consideration (or hesitation) of returning are associated with (a) macro-factors relating to the socio-economic situation of the origin country (associated with the eliminating economic and personal development) as well as (b) powerful drivers of enduring cultural and social mentalities, associated with a mosaic of distinctive norms formed and established beyond the Greek crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Athanasia Chalari & Efi-Irini Koutantou, 2021. "Narratives of Leaving and Returning to Homeland: The Example of Greek Brain Drainers Living in the UK," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 26(3), pages 544-561, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:26:y:2021:i:3:p:544-561
    DOI: 10.1177/1360780420965981
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1360780420965981
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1360780420965981?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Athanasia Chalari & Panagiota Serifi, 2018. "The ‘Crisis Generation’: the effect of the Greek Crisis on Youth Identity formation," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 123, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    2. Lois Labrianidis, 2014. "Investing in Leaving: The Greek Case of International Migration of Professionals," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 314-335, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vassilis Monastiriotis & Angelo Martelli, 2021. "Crisis, Adjustment and Resilience in the Greek Labor Market: An Unemployment Decomposition Approach," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 44(1), pages 85-112, January.
    2. Julia Kazana-McCarthy, 2022. "Coming to Terms with the Greek Crisis: Highly Educated Young Women’s Employment Struggles in Conditions of Economic Austerity," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(2), pages 470-485, June.
    3. Evi Sachini & Nikolaos Karampekios & Charalampos Chrysomallidis, 2020. "Introducing Human Capital in Greek Higher Education Institutes in the Postcrisis Era. The Case of the “Acquisition of Academic Teaching Experience for New Scientists” Public Initiative," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(4), pages 1630-1645, December.
    4. Lois Labrianidis & Manolis Pratsinakis, 2016. "Greece’s new Emigration at times of Crisis," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 99, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    5. Georgios Tsertekidis, 2022. "Migrating from Greece to Germany after 2010: a qualitative approach," International Journal of Social Sciences, European Research Center, vol. 11(1), pages 73-92, March.
    6. Labrianidis, Lois & Pratsinakis, Manolis, 2016. "Greece’s new emigration at times of crisis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66811, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Monastiriotis, Vassilis & Martelli, Angelo, 2021. "Crisis, adjustment and resilience in the Greek labor market: an unemployment decomposition approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107048, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Ramos, Pedro & Alves, Hélio, 2017. "Migration intentions among Portuguese junior doctors: Results from a survey," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(12), pages 1208-1214.
    9. Monastiriotis, Vassilis & Martelli, Angelo, 2021. "Crisis, adjustment and resilience in the Greek labor market: an unemployment decomposition approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115066, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Eugenia Vathakou & Maria Tsampra & Pantelis Sklias, 2017. "Addressing Un/Under-Employment at the Local Level: Participatory Action Research in Greece of Crisis," EconWorld Working Papers 17004, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, revised Mar 2017.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:26:y:2021:i:3:p:544-561. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.