Wall Street Journal: ‘Australia’s Booming Economy and Shortage of Workers Attract Greeks’

According to the Wall Street Journal, Greeks, facing an uncertain economic future at home, are making the 20-hour trip to Australia in search of work.

Unlike Greece, with its 17% unemployment rate, Australia’s economy is thriving. A mining boom fueled by demand from China has led to a shortage of skilled workers and a 5% jobless rate. The Australian government is easing work-permit requirements to attract about 125,000 skilled immigrants over the next year to fill gaps in the current work force. Even truck drivers in Western Australia’s remote mines are earning annual salaries of US$200,000, the paper says.

Australia is a natural destination for Greeks following a wave of emigration there after World War II. Australians of Greek origin now account for about 360,000 out of a total population of 22 million. It is the fourth-largest Greek community outside Greece after the U.S., Cyprus and the U.K., according to the 2006 census.

The flow of Greeks to Australia isn’t yet reflected in official immigration statistics; the primary destination for those leaving Greece was Germany for the first half of 2011, according to the German federal statistic bureau and Greek government officials. But the surge in short-term arrivals signals a likely increase in emigrants in the future, experts say.

Many Greeks who arrive in Australia are turning to Costas Markos, general secretary of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne. The capital of Victoria state is home to the world’s third-largest Greek-speaking urban community, behind Athens and Thessaloniki, according to Victoria’s state government, as the paper concludes.