For years, people left Greece because they felt they had to. Some chased jobs abroad. Others followed education or opportunity. One or two even left for love.
Now, more Greeks from abroad, including many with roots in places like Philly, are learning they can return without giving up the lives they have built.
If you grew up hearing that Greece was where you visited your yiayia in the summer, but not where you built a career, you were not alone. In many Greek-American households, that was the quiet understanding. Greece was beautiful. Sacred, even. But practical? That was another story.
That idea is beginning to change.
Remote work has made geography less important. Greece’s digital nomad visa offers non-citizens a legal way to live in Greece while working remotely for employers abroad, as long as they meet certain income thresholds. At the same time, national programs like Rebrain Greece are focused on something different: bringing skilled Greek professionals back to work for companies within Greece. Through job-matching events and policy support, the program is making it easier to return and rebuild a professional life at home.
Some go back for family. Others want a different pace of life. Some were born and raised in Greece. Others only visited for weddings or ferry rides. There is no one path. What matters is that more people are seeing return not as a step backward, but a step forward.
In 2023, over 47,000 people returned to Greece. It was the first time in over a decade that more came home than left. Some are remote workers. Others, like Evi and Panagiotis, moved from the Netherlands after attending a Rebrain event. They landed jobs in Athens and began building a new kind of home life.
The program does not just connect people with employers. It also promotes a major tax incentive that is available to anyone who relocates their tax residence to Greece after living abroad for at least seven of the past eight years. Under national law, qualifying individuals can receive a 50 percent reduction on their income tax for seven years. The process used to take months. According to recent government statements, the system has now been streamlined, and applications may be approved in just a few days. However, returnees say experiences still vary.
Not every story ends smoothly. Some people moved back and faced high rents, long job searches, or offers that did not live up to their promise. A few returned abroad. And even with improvements, Greek bureaucracy still takes patience.
But something real is happening. People are moving back or moving in. Not just for retirement or vacation, but for work, for family, and for daily life. Some work U.S. hours from a rooftop in Thessaloniki. Others split the year between Athens and the States. Many are finding ways to bring their global lives home.
And they are doing it on their own terms.
One woman who returned from London told Kathimerini that when she mentioned her pregnancy during job interviews, the response wasn’t hesitation. It was encouragement. That was the moment she felt things might be shifting. The story appeared in a July 2025 article by Marianna Kakaounaki titled “Η γενιά του Rebrain: Γι’ αυτό γυρίσαμε,” which featured real returnees describing what drew them home and how the transition unfolded.
Another family found themselves hunting for an apartment in Athens with a stroller and a stack of boxes. They struggled at first, but eventually landed in a neighborhood that felt like theirs. One of them had a job right away. The other is still searching. Like many returnees, they are adjusting slowly to a new version of an old home.
It is not always easy. You still have to navigate time zones, private insurance, school systems, and Greek bureaucracy. But you also get something else. You get to live near your family. You get to walk the same streets your parents did. And you get to build something new on familiar ground.
You can still take calls from Boston, submit reports to Berlin, or run your business from your laptop. But when you close it, you are home. You are with your people.
And sometimes, there is nothing better than hearing your name spoken the way it was meant to be, in your own language, on your own block, even if the next morning includes a trip to the KEP office.
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