Pandemic, rapid rise of remote working drives many Greeks back home

The first thought she had when the airplane landed in July was that this was the first time in seven years that she was coming back home without having booked a return flight. Just a few weeks earlier, Elena Patra and her partner had given up their respective jobs as a dietician and lawyer in Brussels.

They had been thinking about coming back to Greece for several months before the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, which temporarily put their plans on hold over concerns about the instability caused by the health crisis. "The thought that ultimately won the day, though, was that you need to start building at some point," Patra, 29, told Kathimerini. They realized they had taken the big step in that direction on the day her partner left his job. "He said: 'That's it. We're going back.'"

Official data have shown that around half a million Greeks moved abroad over the...