In Search of 'Home': Comparative Insights on SecondGeneration 'Return Migration'

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In Search of 'Home' Comparative Insights on
Second-Generation 'Return Migration'
Dr ANASTASIA CHRISTOU Sussex Centre for Migration
Research University of Sussex
ELIAMEP PRESENTATION ATHENS, June 23 2008
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Narratives of place, culture and identity
second-generation Greek-Americans return home

• From the Homeland to the Hostland and back
  again the Heritage of Immigration and the
  Promise of Return Migration
• (Life stories and identities of first and
  second-generation Greek-Danish migrants)
• Cultural Geographies of Counter-Diasporic
  Migration The Second Generation Returns Home
  (AHRC)

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Second Generation Ancestral Return
Migration

• images and imaginations of homeness,
  belongingness and exile second-generation
  trajectories
• In this presentation I reflect on the connections
  between second-generation migrant identities and
  their sense of belonging in the diaspora. The
  research seeks to unveil the features that
  accentuate the participants sense of home and
  how migratory experiences shape their sense of
  self and place.

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Lives and selves in migrancy mobility,
settlement and the paradoxes of homelands The
dislocation of diaspora agency, subjectivity
and cultural anxiety
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what are the varying kinds of impact that the
state of migrancy and migrant role
performances have on individual and group
identities in relation to spatial and cultural
constructs?

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• nesting birds and birds of passage
• spatialities and subjectivities
• the biographicity of return

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• Space
• Place
• Home

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Selves Identities
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Gendered Belongingness
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Migrancy Mobilities
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Narratives of place, culture and identity
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Dislocations, Displacements, Disruptions,
Deconstructions
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Exclusion, Alienation, Marginalisation
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• By broadly pursuing these questions, the
  presentation will address the way gendered
  identities and acts of identification in ethnic
  life writing and life stories occur in relation
  to social and cultural urban space and in
  response to the ethnic place of origin and
  destination. This precisely reflects a framework
  whereupon transitional gendered spaces,
  transitional gendered processes and research on
  gender and geography emerge.

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between fluidity and fragmentation
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Counter-Diasporic Migration
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research questions

• How are images of the homeland constructed and
  passed on to the second generation in the
  diaspora?
•  
•          What is the role of short
  home-country visits in the learning process
  about the homeland and its potential selection as
  a place to be?
•  
•          How do the returnees react to the
  discovery that the pure Greece of their
  received memory (from parents stories, holiday
  visits etc.) has been fundamentally altered by
  globalisation and mass immigration in recent
  years?
•  
•          To what extent is the very notion of
  diaspora transformed by the return of the second
  generation as a counter-diaspora reversing
  the scattering?
•  
•          How does the second generations return
  change the meaning and boundaries of their
  identities their sense of who they are and of
  where home is?

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negotiations and narratives of ethnocultural
belongingness second-generation reflections

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The research on first
and second- generation Greek migrants in
Denmark had three major aims To develop an
ethnographic profile of the Greek migration
phenomenon to Denmark, encompassing
migration processes, experiences,
community structures and networks. 2. To
examine and to attempt to theorise processes of
integration and interaction/conflict between
generations and within the wider Nordic space
(social and cultural) but also in relation to
the country of ancestral origin. 3. To
present the theoretical and empirical issues
in relation to how identification processes
unfold and how individual and collective
identities of Greek migrants in Denmark are
envisioned, negotiated, constructed and
performed. 

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Key question
How do returning second-generation
Greek-Americans and Greek-Danes react to the
discovery that the Athens they have (re)settled
in is not the pure, homogenous Greece they had
imagined (through holiday visits, memory, their
parents stories etc.), but a city whose reality
has changed in many ways, above all through the
recent influx of immigrants?
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Ideologies of home and return two sets of
questions

• What has motivated second-generation
  Greek-Americans and Greek-Danes to relocate to
  Greece? What, exactly, are they looking for?
• What difficulties do they encounter in this
  return to their ancestral home, and what coping
  mechanisms do they implement in order to adjust
  to their new environment in the old country ?
  How, in particular, do they react to Greeces new
  immigrants?

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Multiple Encounters

• Returnees are surprised and shocked by the way
  Athens has changed, particularly as regards the
  new immigration this transformation of Greek
  society challenges their received memories of
  what Greece was like and their expectations of
  what it should be.
• Returnees are empathetic towards the new
  multicultural nature of Greek society, both (or
  either) because of their own familys experience
  of migration, and because of their experience of
  living in an urban, multi-ethnic environment in
  the United States.
• Returnees differentiate their own (familys)
  experience of migration from that of the new
  immigrants in Greece they construct themselves
  as good migrants and immigrants in Greece as
  bad migrants.

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Migrant encounters home and host societies

• between different immigrant groups in the host
  society
• between returned migrants and immigrants in a
  society which is the home country for the former
  and the receiving society for the latter
• within the home country, between returnee groups
  from different emigrant destinations.

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Migrant encounters home and host societies
EXEMPLIFICATIONS

• the encounter between Greek migrants in the US
  (and Denmark) and other migrant groups with
  either a similar geographical origin and
  historical profile (e.g. Italians/US
  Turks/Denmark) or a different space/time origin
  (e.g. Latinos/US African Arab origin/Denmark)
• the encounter between returning Greek-Americans
  and Greek-Danes to Greece and various immigrant
  groups who have entered Greece in recent years,
  such as Albanians, Bulgarians, Poles etc.
• the encounter in Greece between Greek migrants
  (or their second-generation descendants)
  returning from the main destinations of Greek
  emigration the United States, Australia,
  Germany etc.

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Methodology collecting narratives of return
and home
Narratives of return migration collected from
40 second-generation Greek-American migrants who
have settled in the Athens area and 40 first and
second-generation Greek-Danes in Denmark The
narratives resulted from a three-stage
methodology
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Methodology collecting narratives of return
and home
The narratives resulted from a three-stage
methodology. During the
1st stage participants engaged in
self-reflection through semi-structured and
unstructured one-on-one interviews based on a
life-history approach, participants shared
thoughts, feelings and personal data about their
early lives in America and their return to
Greece 2nd stage participants were asked to
write their own personal accounts or journals, in
which they narrated their stories without
interruption or distraction from questions or
conversation 3rd stage a further meeting with
each of the participants in order to check
preliminary interpretations of their narratives
and offer the opportunity for further discussion
and reflection
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Ideologies of home and return why do
second-generation Greek-Americans and Greek-Danes
return home and what are they looking for?
What has motivated second-generation
Greek-Americans and Greek-Danes to relocate to
Greece? What, exactly, are they looking for?
What difficulties do they encounter in this
return to their ancestral home, and what coping
mechanisms do they implement in order to adjust
to their new environment in the old country?
How do they react to new immigration?
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Narratives
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Narratives
Family, kinship, language and religion as
powerful markers of ethnic and cultural identity

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Narratives 1
Family, kinship, language and religion as
powerful markers of ethnic and cultural identity
my parents, even though we were born and grew
up in America, they always made us believe that
we were Greeks. So I always thought and knew I
was Greek They taught us first how to speak
Greek and then English the Orthodox Church was
always very important especially when we were
younger. I especially remember it was very
important to go to the Church to meet Greeks,
Greek children. I remember just before I was
going to school I actually thought I was living
in Greece because my parents only used to have
Greeks around, all the relatives were Greek, all
their friends were Greek, it was like the Greeks
us and the Americans the others. (Female, GA,
aged 27, interview).
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Narratives 2
My earliest memories are of a world which was
Greek. From words that were Greek to worlds that
were Greek. The smells of foods, the tastes, the
sounds of words and music, the images of Greek
movies, the images from my grandparents
storytelling. The images from Greek celebrations
and weddings and even funerals. The beauty of
rituals, all that makes me feel at home in the
Church, in my Greekness and in Greece.
Generations of passing the heritage from our
origins with the same strength, nothing has faded
away, we all honor our pasts because that is our
future. It is the basis for everything we have
learned and everything we have and will achieve.
Our rich Hellenic heritage is not just memories
its the reality of our lives (Male, GA, aged 37,
journal).
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Motives of ReturnPersonal and Social Reasons
The homecoming as a project of being, becoming
and belonging
I need to feel the security and comfort of
being immersed in my culture and attached to my
roots. I could only fully achieve this by moving
to Greece. This was a well-thought and
well-planned decision, it was my decision, it was
conscious and considered as the only option for a
complete and fulfilling life in the true country
of my heritage. I could never feel at home
anywhere else than in Greece. I could never adapt
to another place devoid of my roots and heritage.
I could never be happy anywhere else. My roots
are here in Greece. I belong to Greece and Greece
is part of me, the part that makes me whole. I
have completed my ancestors destiny and life
cycle. I am finally here (M36, GA, journal).
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Motives of ReturnPersonal and Social Reasons
The homecoming as a project of being, becoming
and belonging
Feeling Greek is to feel emotionally and
physically connected to the land. My home is my
homeland. Once I got here for good I felt
immediately united with the land, at one with the
soil It was a mythic return. I no longer felt
like a foreigner, I no longer felt the agony. I
sensed the nostalgia turning into relief. I went
to the cemetery and touched the soil near my
grandfathers grave. As it ran through my fingers
I felt it run through my veins I could finally
breathe the oxygen my family shared before me. No
more a stranger in a strange land, this is where
I belong (M28, GA, journal).
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From idyllic to exilic spaces of return
I had a really difficult time at the beginning
you know how bureaucracy is, a lot of red tape.
Difficulties getting the recognition of my
degrees, getting my teaching permit, it took a
long time. Running around back and forth from one
office to another, getting the wrong information
from one office, getting different information
from another. It was really hectic. There were
points where I felt like dumping everything and
just going back. The adjustment was really hard.
Very frustrating, it took me two years, and this
is the honest truth (F50, GA, interview).
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• I am still struggling to unite them because it is
  like I neither belong here nor in Greece and I
  then I wonder where do I belong? It is almost as
  if I dont have a country. Its like not having
  that base that I know when I turn eighty I will
  certainly go to my country because thats where I
  want to die. I dont have that kind of base which
  on the one hand upsets me very much and that must
  be such a big sense of security because you know
  that is where you belong in a way but on the
  other hand I think it gives a bigger sense of
  freedom which would enable me to live anywhere in
  the world because it is what you have inside and
  not what country you belong and you can see
  things more openly but I still get confused
  because something inside me wants to say that I
  belong here but also there and then I say ok I
  belong to myself. (Harriett, 2G GD, 34)

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• And for me you know it was very good because it
  was Greece and even now it is like a country you
  go on vacation, I hadnt lived the regular life
  in Greece. So I went and it was a tremendous
  experience because I understood then that I
  belong to Denmark than Greece. I felt not as a
  foreigner but when I was in Greece I would see
  the Danish aspects that I have and when I am in
  Denmark I see the Greek side, so I cant say that
  I am completely Greek or completely Danish, I see
  that I have both and I try to take the good parts
  from both the Danish and Greek. But what made a
  big impression on me was that in Greece you live
  like a robot. Thats how I felt, that you dont
  have your freedom, you run around here and there,
  its difficult, its difficult to make new
  friendships, I see that the Greeks keep their
  friendships from their childhood years, it is
  very difficult for them to make new friendships.
  (Daphne, 2G GD, 27)

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• I think just to find our roots, but I had to go
  down and see this country that my father left and
  sees it like a country from the third world, I
  mean when he left it, it was a country from the
  third world but you still see it as this and I
  had to go and see how it is like, how is my
  family like. (Natalia, 2G GD, 34)

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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
ASTORIA, NY
OMONIA, ATHENS
OMONIA, ATHENS
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
I always wanted to return to Greece no regrets
whatsoever a very good decision. I was brought
up within that Greek culture anyway it wasnt
a big transition, I didnt have trouble
adjusting. I didnt feel I was in a different
country basically I felt I was at home. Home is
somewhere where I can identify with the people
around me, where I can speak the language.
Because my family was so Greek I always felt more
Greek than American and when I did come here I
felt I was in my element not that I didnt in
the States but it was a different kind of
element, more family-oriented. I do feel that I
am Greek and this is my home so thats why Im
here I guess (F23, GA, interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
I went to the States in 2000 for a two-month
visit. I felt so out of place it isnt even
funny a total shock. I did not belong there
anymore, I felt just like I was visiting from
outer space. I wanted to leave so bad, it was
torture. It didnt do anything for me. I realised
how much of a fake attempt at representing Greek
life in the US was, trying to emulate everybody
pretending to be Greek although I did that with
my own way of life all those years that I was
there. Being here now is when I see the authentic
way of doing that (M50, GA, interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
The Greece I longed to return to was the Greece I
knew back in the old days, the Greece where we
would leave our balcony doors and our front doors
unlocked and wide open, where we would spread a
little mattress on the balcony and sleep outdoors
and there was nothing to fear, nothing to worry
about, we knew all our neighbours. Now this has
changed. Greece has started to resemble America
very much insofar as there are other races here
now and living here, not that I am racist, I have
nothing against those people, but I liked it back
then when Greece was Greece, and now Greece has
started to change, very much so (F32, GA,
interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
Identification
I want to feel and sense that I am Greek. When I
was in America I felt Greek and I was Greek.
Unfortunately, and I say this with deep
disappointment and bitterness, at this moment,
this specific time period in Greece, I dont feel
Greek. I feel like a stranger, like a foreigner
in my own country. Perhaps its because of the
migration policy that exists today in this
country. A lot of foreign migrants have come to
Greece, especially illegal migrants. Youll say
OK I saw that in America, too, but there you
consider it a given. We were not accustomed to
this, us Greeks, neither as a state nor as a
society. It made a big impression on me. I
didnt like it, I havent accepted it and that
is strange. In America I was in the midst of all
these ethnic groups and races, all the
nationalities of this world, and I didnt feel
strange and here, where its supposed to be the
authentic country, my real country in terms of
where I want to live for the rest of my life and
I want to adjust better, I feel like a stranger,
like a foreigner. It has upset me, it has hurt me
and it has made me angry, I can say, yes, it has
made me angry (M27, GA, interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
Alienation
In our neighbourhood there is an elementary
school, and if you were there when there is a
break you would be shocked. I cried why did I
cry? Because I heard Albanian-speaking children.
I went into the class and I asked the teacher how
many children were in the class. She has 30
children in the class out of the 30 children,
three are Greek, 27 are Albanian, Bulgarian,
whatever they are. And I asked her What is your
most difficult problem because they dont speak
Greek? And she said, My difficult problem is
explaining things to the foreigners, because I
cant go on to the next topic until they know and
I keep those three Greeks behind and that is not
right. I dont think that Greece is doing
enough to address the issue, it disappoints me.
I dont know what will happen in Greece ten years
from now I dont want to know. I think all this
incoming immigration is a threat to national
identity and religion. I really do. That saddens
me I dont see them yet doing anything to
correct it, the government, they are still coming
in, the borders are all open and where I am,
often I see police cars rounding them up, putting
them in these big vans and you hear them say Im
coming back! Its depressing. I think they
should have stricter laws (F68, GA, interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
comparative experiences
when I was in the States I never got robbed. I
got robbed here in Athens. You know, people give
you these horror stories about the States, how
there are thieves all over the place I never
got to see these things in Boston, it was a
wonderful city. There were times when I would be
out, and return home at 1 oclock in the
morning and nothing ever happened to me.
Recently here in Athens I got robbed twice
(F50, GA, interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
transformations transitions
Greece has been transformed into a multicultural
society, yes, Ive seen that, here in Athens.
Its not problematic it has its positive and its
negative. But its something you cant stop, you
cant tell people to stop coming to your country
we went to other countries. No, its not
problematic, I think its a good thing (F27, GA,
interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
socio-cultural landscapes
I think its great, I think its what a growing
country needs although there are a lot of
risks and challenges associated with that. Greece
is so strong an ethnic country, you know 98 per
cent of us are Greek Orthodox, but the population
is stagnant 10 million, 11 million and there
are as many deaths as births and that is
negative long-term for a country (M50, GA,
interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
The Other
There are a lot of Albanians, more and more
Albanians, since I moved here to Greece. On the
other hand, all the construction work and all the
work the Greeks dont want to do the Albanians do
and the Albanians work for cheap, I mean, I think
they are discriminated against, obviously there
have been crimes involving Albanians but there
are crimes with Greeks involved as well, so I
think its hard for them, I dont think the
Greeks are very accepting. But like I said, the
Albanians do the jobs the Greeks dont want to
do, so you would think that the Greeks would shut
their mouths and be grateful (F21, GA,
interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
Illegal Albanian immigrants arrested on Greek
border (BBC News)
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
criminalisation of the other
It has to do with issues of behaviour of the
people who have come here, because I was a
migrant too but I respected the country I went
to, I respected the rules, the institutions, the
rules of survival and living. The people who have
come here in Greece they have respected nothing
whatsoever, which results in criminality a
situation of intolerance of craziness (M27, GA,
interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
Fourth Outcome
Being a Greek-American in Greece has a lot of
drawbacks. The Greek people are not that ready to
accept someone who is not really Greek, even
though I speak Greek, my Dad was born in Greece,
I am married to a Greek, Ive been here 35 years,
they have not accepted me at all (F68, GA,
interview).
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The reality multicultural Athens and
returnees reactions
Fourth Outcome
I was born in the States and I think America is
a wonderful country, it provides lots of
opportunities, and I think anyone where they are
born they have a strong tie to that place. I
realised that when 9/11 happened. I was
devastated very upset. I got very patriotic.
Being here in Greece was very hard because there
wasnt any understanding, I mean because of
anti-American sentiment there wasnt a big
understanding, people were not so upset about it
you know I had cab drivers tell me Good that
they suffered, the Americans got what they
deserved, and I got very upset and very
defensive and it made me realise that I am truly
proud to be American (F21, GA, interview).
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Conclusion
For many the true, idealised Greece of
ancestral roots and a pure cultural heritage is
indeed what they find, but others discover that,
in their eyes, the authentic Greece has
disintegrated and lost its traditional style in a
headlong rush into modernity and uncontrolled
immigration. These returnees therefore encounter
spaces of exile and alienation even in the
ancestral homeland. Several of the interview and
journal extracts quoted above represent
narratives of transition which articulate
belongingness derived from conflicting notions of
home and alienation where the self meets
the other, in a homeland which is in a rapid
state of flux.
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Conclusion
In this context we uncover a double dynamic the
Greek-American returning self is confronted by
the non-Greek immigrant other, typically in the
threatening figure of the Albanian (King et
al., 1998) and a variety of reactions ensues,
according to our three hypotheses the
Greek-American returnees are viewed as others
by the hegemonic Greek society which regards all
non-native-born Greeks as inferior outsiders
according to a hierarchy of Greekness
(Triandafyllidou and Veikou, 2002).
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the imaginative homeland
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multiple new and complex journeys
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Thank you