Greek Paper’s Report: “An Entire Greek City Has Moved to Düsseldorf Due to Crisis”

Greek newspaper Ethnos published a report on the Greek community of Düsseldorf on Saturday, July 28th. According to Katerina Rova, who included some official data in her report, about 15,000 people left Greece in 2011.

“An entire city such as Sparta or Orestiada moved to Germany in the second half of the year 2011. In a bid to escape from crisis, 15,000 Greeks were added to the thousands of others already who left the country and currently live in Germany,” writes the editor adding that “most of them are young, feeling desperate due to unemployment, mostly scientists having studied in higher education institutions, having earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees who left Greece because it offers them no chance for survival.”

Germany is in great need of Greek doctors, engineers or nurses. Several events have been organized in the past few months in Greece so that future migrants can be informed about wages and life in Germany.

Representatives of the Federation of Greek Communities in Germany told the reporter that there are two major categories with regards to Greek migrants of Germany. “They are either young people, most of the times well-educated, or people over 40, with families, who lost their jobs recently,” they commented.

According to Yiorgos Rougas, President of the Greek community of Düsseldorf, “we have been informed about some offices established in Athens who promise Greeks to find them jobs, accommodation and insurance in Germany. But many of them are frauds.”

Panos Paltsokas, a Greek doctor working in Düsseldorf, concludes that the ideal plan would be that “one would work in Germany but live in Greece. I wish there was a car picking me up everyday after finishing my job and transferring me to Greece.”