Since the economic crisis hit Greece in 2008, from that year right up to 2016 over 400,000 Greeks have moved abroad in search of opportunity and greater stability. But this mass movement of people could very well be reversed, according to experts, if investments are made and the economy grows.

This insight was presented at the annual E-Kyklos conference on Thursday in Athens.

Fay Makantasi, a research analyst at diaNEOsis, presented a survey on the country’s social mobility during the financial crisis that outlined the general profile of the 427,000 Greeks who left Greece. They are generally classed as university graduates, young, unmarried and live in cities.

Makantasi told Kathimerini that these people could consider returning to Greece if there were signs of not only a financial shift, but a political shift as well.

READ: The upside of Greece’s brain-drain