After the financial crisis of 2010-2018, and particularly in the last 3 years, despite the coronavirus pandemic, energy crisis and increase in inflation, the Greek economy has recorded significant growth rates (8.4% in 2021 and 5.9% in 2022, second largest increase in the Eurozone). The business ecosystem is expanding rapidly, research and innovation are booming, exports as well as foreign direct investment have increased. A central pillar and condition for maintaining, enhancing and accelerating rapid growth is the existence and absorption of a highly skilled workforce.

Many Greek youth aged 18-40 who moved abroad during the years of crisis (brain drain) and excelled in international companies, organizations, universities and start-ups returned to Greece after 2019 (brain regain). Nevertheless, as the examples of prosperous outward-looking economies such as the USA, UK, United Arab Emirates and Singapore teach us, repatriated Greeks alone are not enough to carry the weight of a long-term wave of growth and outwardness. Our country needs an equally healthy influx and presence of foreign talent who will not only work in Greek businesses with ambitions of expanding internationally, but will also establish companies in Greece, produce research and patents, and enter into commercial and knowledge-exchange relationships with the countries they studied in or emigrated from.

Until recently, the institutional immigration regime in Greece did not facilitate the influx and presence of highly skilled foreign talent. What our country needs is an immigration program aimed at young citizens of third countries outside the EU who have talent that exceeds conventional expectations (exceptional talent) and can transfer their high prospects (high potential) to the Greek economy. It is no coincidence that the United Kingdom introduced such a program (High Potential Individual Visa) in May 2022, to attract a skilled workforce and maintain its economic competitiveness.

The Greek Ministry of Immigration and Asylum recently announced the creation of the "Talent Visa,"  following a detailed study and proposal by Deon Policy Institute and Endeavor Greece. This is an important step towards attracting a skilled workforce. According to the proposal of our Institute, the Greek talent visa (Talent Visa) is addressed to "fresh", i.e. within the last 5 years, graduates of leading universities worldwide attracting excellent and talented graduates from all over the world, regardless of their nationality. The duration of the visa is one year and its holders will have the opportunity to stay in Greece without having a job, allowing them to generate innovative ideas, test potential projects, understand the operation of the Greek market and to get to know Greek employers. The purpose of the initiative is to integrate talent into the Greek market by the time their one-year visa expires, at which time they can switch to another permanent residence permit offered by the Greek state. Finally, we recommended that the decision making process (acceptance or rejection of the visa application) be speedy, avoiding time-consuming and bureaucratic procedures that might discourage potential candidates. Similarly, the visa issuance processes completed by the Greek consular authorities globally must be handled with similar efficiency.

A well-coordinated advertising campaign is a prerequisite for the success of this undertaking. The campaign should target websites, magazines, conferences and other channels that talented foreigners visit such as career offices of the target universities, renowned science (e.g. Nature) and technology (e.g. Techcrunch) journals, but also the Greek diplomatic authorities. If introduced, the Greek Talent Visa will be the only such visa of the European Union. It therefore becomes extremely important to advertise strategically, given the international competition to attract talented graduates and new professions ("war for talent" ). It would also be good for the Greek State to create an online one-stop-shop for those interested in immigrating to Greece, with all the information they need to move to our country.

In conclusion, the implementation of this proposal in Greece has the prospect of creating thousands of jobs and patents in the long term, as has happened in the US according to published data, contributing significantly to the continued economic growth and competitiveness of our country.

*Petros Perselis is a founding member of Deon Policy Institute and an Endeavor Greece mentor.