Greek Brain Drainers in Europe: An Empirical Study

The young people’s migration that is high qualified and over skilled is one of the major issues in Greece during this crisis because it deducts from the economy a highly productive part of its labor force. The analysis of this issue, the reasons why the young scientists leave the country, and the adoption of economic policy measures that will deal with the roots of the problem are the biggest challenges. The purpose of this article is to describe this phenomenon and to highlight the most important factors that affect it. Firstly, some quantitative data are presented about the size of the phenomenon, secondly it is presented a bibliography review relevant to the topic, and finally it presents the empirical results of a survey on a sample of 379 people who have already emigrated and work abroad so as to become aware of the important factors that influenced their decision to emigrate abroad. With this in mind, the data analysis was examined by using the Microsoft Office Excel and the SPSS statistical package. After that, it was held a Descriptive Statistical Analysis, a Factor Analysis, a Variance Analysis, and a Reliability Analysis of the data of the research. The factor analysis uses mathematical procedures to simplify interrelated measures so as to be discovered patterns in a set of variables. Large data sets that consist of several variables can reduce their number by observing variable groups (factors). The Principal Component Analysis was used in order to export the factors of the factor analysis with Orthogonal rotation axes with the Varimax method, which is considered as one of the most reliable and popular methods. The suitability of the factor analysis was examined with the Bartlett’s Sphericity statistical test and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin statistic test. The factor analysis drew on sixteen (16) factors. Afterwards, an analysis of variance was carried out so as to be determined the accuracy of the research model and to be examined the research hypotheses credibility of the research. For the reliability of the results beyond the level of importance it was checked and the reliability indicator of Cronbach’s Alpha for each research hypothesis. Finally, the reliability of the variables was proved by repeating the statistical measure Cronbach’s Alpha, for all the variables of the research.