The first time he asked himself, “Where the heck am I?” was as he was driving to his new job, a few kilometers outside Orestiada, the second biggest city in the region of Evros in northeastern Greece.
What he saw as he approached was a cluster of forlorn buildings, worn down by time and damp. An equally tired sign at the entrance gate advertised “Quality Fertilizers” under an image of the Goddess Artemis. He saw a military camp right next door, a handful of houses across the street and a weary soldier waiting at a dilapidated bus stop. “I’ll need to work up some enthusiasm about coming here every day,” he told himself.
Constantinos Drakoudis, 30, is one of two applicants approved for the pilot phase of the Social Cohesion and Family Ministry’s new “Relocation” program.
Kathimerini met up with Drakoudis, who left Athens in the hopes of securing a better quality of life in Orestiada, and spent a day with him trying to understand the challenges and advantages of his decision, and how an initiative like the “Relocation” program can help address the rapid population decline in towns and villages across Greece.
Against the tide
The 30-year-old is regarded as something of an urban legend in Orestiada – everyone seems to want to meet the guy who gave up life in the capital to live in this small town, when most locals are just looking for a way out of it.
“I had been mulling the idea for some time, but something just clicked one day. I hadn’t spoken to anyone about it, not even my parents. I just went to work one day and told my manager that I wanted to leave, and was interested in taking over the northern Greece branch,” said Drakoudis as we sat down for a coffee at the town’s main square.
His decision was driven by a desire for what he hopes will be a better quality of life. “My life in Athens was basically spent in a car commuting, as my job also took me to the suburbs. By the time I got back home, I didn’t feel that I had the strength to even go out for a coffee – as we’re doing now. I’d just sit there staring at the ceiling until I felt better,” he says.
He chose Orestiada because his father’s job had taken the family there during his middle- and high-school years. His father actually hailed from a village, Spilaio, not far away. Even though Constantinos left at the age of 18, he kept in touch with his school friends and would often visit during the holidays.
“It’s a tough step to take if you don’t have friends and family,” he says, adding that securing a job is equally important.
A trained agronomist, he found a job relatively easily at an agricultural cooperative, while also trying to set up his own business producing mosquito traps. The government’s relocation program is certainly a big help, he says, but it’s not incentive enough on its own – especially for someone who is not moving to a familiar place.
“If you’re completely up in the air and don’t even have a place to work, I don’t think the money really helps. In my case, it will help because I can invest it directly in my business. It gives me a safety cushion.”
Experiencing life in a rural town as an adult has given him a better understanding of why more people did not apply for the program. His classmates in Orestiada illustrate the issues at hand, especially with regard to the area’s middling job prospects. Many have moved to cities in other parts of Greece or abroad, while those who stayed either work as border guards or have taken over their family businesses or farms.
The situation is even worse in the villages, as he witnesses every time he visits Spilaio.
“I recognized you from afar by your build. ‘That’s Kostas,’ I said. You’re the spitting image of your father,” 77-year-old Thanasis Georgiou exclaims as the young man pushes open the door of the village kafenio.
The retired merchant’s face lights up with a smile every time he sees his friend’s son. He knows he’s only visiting for a short while. His own children have moved to Orestiada, too, after all. “What is a young person to do here? How are they to live?” he says, commenting on the collapse of livestock breeding and the rapid decline of farming.
He blames the state’s failure to support the primary sector more effectively and says the problem goes back decades. “And to think that you can throw a seed onto rocks in this area and it will grow,” interjects another villager.
When asked why more people haven’t taken advantage of the “Relocation” program, they say people wouldn’t live in the village even if houses were being given away for free. “I wouldn’t move here either; not even for €10,000,” admits Drakoudis.
Apart from the issue of work, the region of Evros, like many of Greece’s provinces, faces other challenges: poor health infrastructure, the distance from a big city, and the shortage of young people – not to mention the quiet way of life that often leads to boredom. “There’s nowhere to go after 3 p.m. in Orestiada,” says Drakoudis.
It’s been 12 months since Drakoudis packed his belongings into his car and made the drive north – and he has not regretted his decision. He admits that it has a lot to do with the kind of person he is, but the fact is that he now has the time and money to travel, his rent is cheap, and his colleagues have embraced him for his fresh ideas and because “even though I’ve lived in Athens, I still act like a local.”
“My friends had wagered that I’d barely last the first winter. Now I ask myself why I didn’t make the move earlier,” he tells Kathimerini.
The program’s terms
The “Relocation” program offers a one-off subsidy of €10,000 to citizens ready to permanently live and work in the regional units of Evros, Kastoria, Florina, Kilkis, Serres, Pella and Drama – all in northern Greece.
The municipalities of Soufli, Didymoteicho and Orestiada were the first to join the pilot phase.
The program is aimed at single-person and multi-person households, Greeks living abroad, members of the armed forces and security services, university graduates who remain where they studied, young professionals and remote workers.
The changes that came into effect on March 1 include the removal of the requirement to have already secured a job, the option to receive 50% of the financial support in advance before relocating, and an expansion of eligibility to include settlement in larger communities.
As he watches his city’s population plummet, Orestiada Mayor Diamantis Papadopoulos focuses on the shortage of work.
“We need jobs and we need investments – and I mean jobs of a higher caliber than the manual labor, which we also need,” he says.
He proposes a package of incentives to attract big companies and create new hubs of economic activity.
Stelios Gialis, professor and academic coordinator at the Labor Geography Research Lab of the University of the Aegean, agrees. “If I want to develop a region, I need to create a hub there where, with appropriate funding and incentives, I can establish a critical mass of businesses, activities, services and residents,” he says. “After that, the hub will begin to function like a magnet.”
He also emphasizes the need to improve infrastructure, particularly in education and health.
Social Cohesion and Family Minister Domna Michailidou acknowledges these concerns but notes that they are long-standing problems that cannot be solved with a single measure.
“The ‘Relocation’ program was not designed as a magical solution, but as a tool within a broader policy to strengthen regional areas and address the demographic problem,” she says. “Our priority is to create the right conditions for people who choose to settle in these regions.”
Her goal is for relocation to become a realistic and lasting life choice, not just a response to a financial incentive. The ministry is therefore considering additional measures, including housing support, renovation programs, incentives for workers, and tax breaks to reduce the cost of living. Cooperation with local authorities could also provide complementary incentives at the local level.
Drawing on the pilot phase, the ministry has already begun expanding the program to more areas facing demographic pressure and broadening eligibility criteria.