“Bring the boys back home!” The forgotten fight for restricting outward migration when/where it is still possible. The case of Greece

We focus on Greece as an example of a country that stands between the very poor countries that are doomed to send migrants and the rich countries that are doomed to receive them. We note the importance of stopping outward migration from countries such as Greece, which are democratic, well organized and not poor. On the one hand, we try to investigate the reasons why modern Greeks migrate, and on the other hand, we try to find measures that may persuade some Greek migrants to return home. After briefly describing basic elements of the Greek diaspora, we focus on the current situation based on a questionnaire sent to all official Greek representations all over the world and numerous local associations of Greeks in countries with a large Greek population. We acquire more detailed information by in-depth interviews with highly ranked officials of the Greek Foreign Ministry and Greek migrants.