Based on a research conducted by Bloomberg news site, Greece ranks second in the list of the top 20 nations of origin for immigrant doctors that work in Germany, Europe’s strongest economy.

According to information released by Bloomberg, last year brought the third double-digit percentage increase in a row, as the number of foreign doctors practicing in Germany surged 120 percent in the past decade to more than 31,000.

Germany offers jobs in the medical field due to a doctor shortage in the country, that was created by the diminishing birthrate and the fact that German doctors are aging: 4 percent of them are more than 50 years old. “The shortage is in turn creating a big opportunity for foreign doctors, drawn by higher pay and greater career opportunities to help fill the gap,” Bloomberg says.
Apart from Germany, other countries with high demand for doctors include the United Kingdom, Switzerland, USA and France.

Of the 31,000 immigrant doctors in Germany, 2,500 are Greeks, a number which puts Greece in the second place of the list of top 20 nations of origin for immigrant doctors.
In first place we find Romania with 3,215 physicians, followed by Austria, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Syria, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Ukraine.

“The farther you go to the periphery, the more foreigners you’ll find,” said to Bloomberg Juergen Hoffart, head of the medical association in Rhineland-Palatinate. Foreign doctors, he underlined, are lured by better salaries and working conditions.

An entry-level doctor in Serbia earns about 350 euros a month, while an apartment in Nis can cost about 120 euros a month. An assistant doctor in Germany might earn 10 times as much.