“51 companies with 1,800 jobs»: It was something like… slogan for the first “Career Day” in Germany. The organization, this time in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was addressed for the first time directly to Greeks who live and work in Germany and are interested in returning, as workers in Greece. The response among Greeks in Germany is remarkable: According to data from the organization, over 1,600 Greeks attended the event at the luxurious Kö36 hotel in Dusseldorf.

“Scooping” job opportunities in Greece at Königsallee

Dusseldorf is certainly not a random choice: In addition to the large number of Greeks living in the city and its surroundings, it is a “presentable” German city, known for the large Greek presence for decades. Königsallee, the famous shopping street with its designer boutiques, cafes and glittering luxury, was of course even more sparkling in the run-up to Christmas. An ideal setting to host the first “Career Day” in Germany, in order to highlight the steps taken in the Greek labor market.

“Greece, which many of them have left behind, is very different today. The aim of this initiative is to bring the two parties closer together – Greek citizens, who live abroad and are thinking about returning at some point, with businesses that are looking for staff. Whether they ultimately decide to turn around and make a deal is up to them. However, our duty, as we perceive it, is to cultivate those conditions and to favor the coupling of the two”, emphasized Minister Niki Kerameos in an interview with DW.

The meetings between the interested parties and the representatives of the companies – basically from HR departments – are quite reminiscent of the first contacts made through the networking platform LinkedIn: A volleyscoping from both sides, but for life.

The nosto and the salary

But what prompted the Greeks, who have been working in Germany for years, to visit the Career Day in Dusseldorf?

“Sure, the return, anyone who returns from abroad knows that the chances are very high that you won’t find a job with the same money you used to get abroad. But that doesn’t mean you don’t want to come back. You want to come back for other reasons. What you want is a good job, with a good professional perspective, with stability”, clarifies the Governor of the Public Employment Service (PYPA), Spyros Protopsaltis, pointing out that the reasons many want to return “are mainly emotional, family… The taste. They want to go back to their country.”

The questions of the Greeks who were at the event were not (only) the obvious ones, about salaries and benefits. After all, all of them, during their “Odyssey” in recent years and making it through in a foreign society, in a foreign language and often without any support, are not dreaming – neither in terms of earnings, nor in terms of infrastructure and conditions. In addition, many visit Greece often anyway and have an idea of ​​the situation.

But for many of the Greeks living abroad, and specifically in Germany, the issue is not only finding a job or the reduction of earnings in case of repatriation: “It is also the conditions, which in Germany have a standard, which I do not know to what extent it can be covered in Greece: from days off and from hours, benefits for those who have children – there are many at this age with children and they want to return… It is what it is like to live with a family in Greece. And what is it like to work with a family in Greece? That is, maternity leave, paternity leave, the infrastructures, which are not in the labor sector but also many other things that have nothing to do with work, but with the problems we know in Greece, such as accuracy, etc.”, concludes Andreas Koutsopoulos, AI engineer, who has been living in Germany for 14 years.

Foreign experience is valuable for businesses

“This is certainly not the place to go into depth, but you can make a contact, get information and find out who to contact to discuss further. We didn’t expect anything more than to come and leave with five job offers,” says one attendee, who works at a hospital in North Rhine-Westphalia and wishes to remain anonymous.

“I see people looking for it, if they want to turn around. No people have come who are sure they want to return”observes Maro Mavriderou, HR Generalist at Space Hellas. Katerina Kamba, head of talent recruitment at the consulting company PwC, seems to have got the same impression: “People come who want to search. You see they are still not that comfortable with the idea of ​​going back. And I understand it, it needs a ferment, it’s not a decision you make overnight”, she says – having the experience of repatriation herself after 15 years abroad. “There are no perfect places. If there were, we would all have gone there. You weigh them, set your priorities and act accordingly,” he says.

On the other hand, Paris Diamantopoulos, Recruiter at Halyvourgia in Greece, emphasizes the importance of foreign experience for businesses: “Having seen and passed through some posts, so that he can adapt relatively quickly to our own factory.” In the same spirit and Ms. Kaba states: “We are really looking for people who, based on the experiences they have gained from abroad, have also seen different cultures, different principles, different processes.”

There is interest from businesses. Nostalgia on the part of Greeks abroad as well. After all, the return scenario – we also saw it with the generation that emigrated from Greece in the 1960s – is always open when you leave your country. But is a job and some benefits enough for someone to leave everything they have built with painstakingly and the life they used to live in a foreign country? Perhaps this “coupling” in Dusseldorf and the future Career Day destinations will bring something to Greece as well, possibly cultivating there also some of the conditions and “standards” that the Greeks have learned while living abroad in recent years.