Her Australian passport, and the escape that it offered, increasingly played on her mind as her adult children struggled to find work, she lost her job and Greece's economy and government lurched from crisis to crisis.
"We were just struggling to make ends meet until I made the big decision that we had to leave the country quickly," Ms Hatzichistakis said from her uncle's house in Melbourne, where she and her family arrived last month.
"There is nothing to go back to. We've left everything -- the house, the furniture, the dog."
Ms Hatzichistakis said the election victory of pro-euro New Democracy in the weekend's elections would not tempt her back to her Thessaloniki home, and Australian migration agents expect the tide of inquiries from Greece and other struggling European countries to swell further amid escalating unemployment rates.
Sydney migration lawyer Aristotle Paipetis said many were not yet seeking permanent refuge but wanted to explore their options.
"Many of them don't have the skills that are required for the purposes of recognition here," he said. "We have been contacted by tradespeople who are still in Greece, saying they've heard there are jobs in mining.
"They say 'I'm prepared to work anywhere, underground, I don't want to see the light of day, I just want to make money.'
"It shows incredible resolve but their English is a problem."
The Migration Institute of Australia has noticed a significant increase in dual citizens who move according to employment opportunities, as well as Greek students coming to learn English.
Alevizos Troupakis, 25, arrived in Melbourne to study English last December and hopes to stay on after his studies finish. "All the systems have fallen apart in Greece," he said. "Here there are systems and order."
Nikolaos Papadopoulos, 28, also moved from Athens late last year and hopes to get a permanent visa when he has finished his childcare course.
"I realise why every person who comes to Australia stays here," he said. "I respect my government, I respect the law, but most of us (in Greece), we didn't follow the law. Here there is a program."
Peter Jasonides, managing director of a private college in Melbourne, said students from the struggling eurozone countries were reporting increased scrutiny from immigration officials when they tried to extend their visas.
"In the last month or two, they have slowed that process down a lot by asking for all this added information like, why have you learnt English in Greece, what are your financials?"
An Immigration Department spokesman said students of all nationalities faced increased scrutiny as a result of the Knight review into student visas.
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