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Your Roots wUI be Here, Away From Your Home:

Migration of Greek Women to Montreal 1950-1980

Margarita Dounia Department of History McGill University, Montreal June 2004

A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Master of Arts

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Acknowledgements 111 English Abstract IV French Abstract V

1. Engendering Migration. 1

II. Oral History, Memory and Transnationalism. 7

III. Canadian Immigration Policies and the Migration of Greeks to Canada. 15

IV. Greek Women Immigrants in Montreal through Oral History. 29

V. "We had to wait for Easter to buya new pair of shoes": Memories of the past, memories of home. 36

VI. "Stazzito Cristina, Stazzito": Aspects of the Life of Greek Women Immigrants in Montreal. 51

VII. "We are still in Greece, we never leftt!: Aspects of Gender and Transnationalism. 95

VIII. Conclusion 106

Bibliography Primary Sources 113 Printed Sources 114 Electronic Sources 122

Appendix 124 Acknowledgements

1 would first like to thank my supervisor, Dr. John Zucchi, for his

useful insight, assistance, and decisive guidance. 1 would also like to

thank Professor Desbarats for her important feedback on the

methodological issues and Professor Daviken-Studnicki-Gizbert for his

interest and knowledge on issues of migration, transnationalism and

Diasporas. Special thanks to my Professors from Greece, Ioanna

Laliotou, Penelope Papailias, Yannis Papatheodorou and Antonis Liakos

for their support, guidance, friendship and invaluable knowledge on

historical issues. 1 would also like to thank Colleen Parish for her

boundless help and support, and John for his support and his technical

information.

Of course this thesis could not have been completed without the

interviewees and above all the friendship and kindness of the Greek

immigrant women in Montreal. Special thanks to the family of "Al iki" ,

to"Charoula", "Olympia", "Cristina", and "Melina". Heartfelt thanks goes

to my family, without their love, support and determination 1 would not

have been able to complete this thesis. A warm thanks to Yanna

Theodoropoulos , Cristiana Patrinou, and Eleni Tzakas. Vou have all

made this experience worthwhile and unforgettable.

III Abstract

This work is a historical analysis of the engendered experience of migration, seen through the case of Greek women immigrants. The peak periods for Greek migration to Canada dates to the first decades after the

Second World War, when the political, economic and social situation in

Greece combined with the migration regulations enforced by Canada led to the movement of many Greek women towards what they considered a better future. This thesis based on interviews examines the background of the women immigrants, their experiences upon arrivaI to Canada and their transnational activities and identities.

Although several scholars have analyzed the engendered dimension of migratory phenomena, little attention has been paid to the case of Southern-European women (an unfavorable migrant group) such as Greeks. Meanwhile many works fail to provide a profound gender sensitive analysis which would surmount stereotypes, biases and preconceptions concerning womanhood. Finally this thesis aspires to introduce an important analytical scope, that of transnationalism, ln terms of social roles, identities and activities that Greek women engage in. What attains a central role for the character and realization of this work is the use of oral testimonies.

lV Précis

Ce travail est une analyse historique de l'expérience migratoire féminine, examinée par le coin de femmes émigrants grecques. Le zénith de l'émigration grecque au Canada se date aux premières années après la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, quand la situation politique, économique et sociale en Grèce combinée avec les régulations établi par le Canada sur l'émigration ont contribue au mouvement des plusieurs femmes grecques vers ce qui semblait comme un 'meilleur future'. Cette thèse qui tient comme base les témoignages oraux, examine les fonds des femmes grecques, leurs expériences au Canada, leurs activités et leurs identités transnationales.

Bien que plusieurs travaux d'académiciens on analyse la perspective féminine de phénomènes migratoires, peu d'attention est attribue au cas des femmes de l'Europe du Sud (une catégorie d'émigrants un favorise) comme les Grecs. En plus, plusieurs travaux ont

échoue de créer une analyse profonde et sensitive vers féminité, que pourra surmonter les stéréotypes, les préjuges et les préconceptions sur féminité. Cette approche aspire d'introduire une dimension analytique importante, cella du transnationalisme, concernant les rôles sociaux, les identités et les activités des femmes émigrants grecques. Finalement les témoignages oraux atteint un rôle central pour le caractère et la réalisation de cette thèse.

v 1. Engendering Migration

Migration has been a movement, a phenomenon, a process and an experience, entrenched in human history, agency, notions and perceptions on nationhood, state regulations and policies, social and national identities, gender roles and experiences, technologies and sciences such as history, sociology, anthropology, economics and law.

"Currently, the temporary and permanent movements are globalizing, accelerating, diversifying and feminizing."l However, in many cases feminization has always been the case.

Women's contribution to the migratory arena has been important and multi-faceted, yet persistently neglected by academia.

Despite the fact that women participated in the migratory movement in droves, at times outnumbering male immigrants, and despite their decisive input to economical, familial, politica1, social and cultural grounds, their role was underestimated and shadowed by stereotypes, exclusions, inaccuracies and silences. Recently more studies have been focusing on the female dimension of migration. However the question of why women had for so long 'disappeared' from migration studies remains.

Modern day studies seeking to restore the presence of women in migration have to build "on an extant of literature which has ostensibly been gender neutral when in fact it has been gender blind or simply assumed that women are wives, or dependents who are

1 Eleonore Kofman et al, Gender and International Migration in Europe: Employment, Welfare, Politics, London 2000, pl.

1 'following men'."2 In this context women were seen as economically inactive, socially passive and obedient to men's wishes and decisions.

Therefore their role in and experience of migration were considered of minor importance.

Another reason for this negligence rests on the conceptualization of migration as a labor-based process, presumably male, in which women were idle or insignificant as a whole. "Migrants were assumed to be single men in search of employment, although throughout the labor migration period, women both migrated and participated in the economy". 3 As Morokvasic argues "the deliberate exclusion of women is usually justified by women's supposedIy minor economic role."4

Furthermore, in much of migration research there is an implicit division between wage work and unpaid household work as two independent and unrelated worlds, Iocating women in the household and men in the wage work. Women appear as actors of the private while men are attributed the public space. "When women are

'foregrounded' in the househoid as mothers, wives and daughters, they disappear elsewhere as migrants, workers and citizens."5

According to Gabriella Lazaridis, even in the cases where women are not negiected, they are only mentioned within the familial framework,

2 Jacqueline Andall, Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Europe, Oxford 2003, p26. 3 Eleonore Kofman et al, Gender and International Migration in Europe: Employment, Welfare, PoUties, London 2000, pl3. 4 In Floya Anthias and Gabriella Lazaridis, Gender and Migration in Southem Europe, Oxford 2000, p53. 5 Wenona Giles, Portuguese Women in Toronto: Gender, Immigration and Nationalism, Toronto 2002, p.18.

2 stereotypieally presented as "isolated, illiterate, secluded from the outside world, bearers of many children, while men are

'breadwinners'."6 In this context women are perceived as docile, not posing a threat to the host countries concerned with migrants taking over the jobs of indigenous populations, or reacting strongly against assimilation and regulations.

Moreover, immigration and multicultural policies define immigrant women in patriarchal ways. "Women are regarded essential to the transference of ethnie and cultural traditions and states often administer or integrate the gendered practices of various ethnie groups when these serve the purposes of the state's policies".7 As

Pierre Bourdieu argued the major stereotypes in a society are those attached to race, ethnie origin, class and gender. "The binary divisions of white and black, high and low, male and female ... are basic to the creation and maintenance of social categories that sustain inequality by stabling boundaries of inclusion or exclu sion. "8

Finally, feminists have alSO argued that the categories to define migration are not necessarily appropriate to define the female experience of migration. The tools, data and categories used to de scribe migratory movements, have not taken into account the distinctiveness and uniqueness of the female migratory narrative.

6 Floya Anthias and Gabriella Lazaridis, Gender and Migration in Southem Europe, Oxford 2000, p53 7 Wenona Giles, Portuguese Women in Toronto: Gender, Immigration and Nationalism, Toronto 2002, r· 18. Pierre Bourdieau, Distinction: A Social Critique ofthe Judgement ofTaste, Cambridge MA, 1984 in Rita James Simon, Immigrant Women, New Brunswick 2001, pl77.

3 "What is needed is a more gender-sensitive methodology,

categorization and analysis". 9

With such assumptions and biases about gender, studies have

analyzed the engendered dimension of migration in various ways.

Initially the focus of migration theorists was on the causes of

migration. In these grounds, neo-classical theorists of the 1970's

attributed migrato:ry movements to the existence of push-pull factors,

mainly generating reductive economic models. According to these

models, "the experiences of women migrants fitted into the models

created to understand, explain and predict male migration, thus

assuming that women have the same reasons for migrating as men.

Agency in these accounts was never viewed within the context of

resisting oppressive and exploitative structures." 10 This model resulted

in a number of pertinent assumptions about gender. Men were seen

as the pioneering immigrants while women appeared solemnly as

dependents.

From the mid-1970's Marxist political and economic theories

became of major significance. These theories accentuate the unequal

distribution of economic and political power world-wide, and explain

migration as a mobilization of cheap labor towards powerful capitalist

economies. Economy and class were central in such analyses,

marginalizing other divisions such as gender and race, and reducing

the importance of human agency. Marxist analysis oriented towards a

9 Floya Anthias and Gabriella Lazaridis, Gender and Migration in Southern Europe, Oxford 2000, p53 10 Eleonore Kofman et al, Gender and International Migration in Europe: Employment, Welfare, Po/itics, London 2000, p.22-23

4 representation of migrants as fractions of an exploited world wide proletariat, ignoring aspects such as the social, politieal, familial and cultural lives and interactions of immigrants, as well as their transnational bonds.

Early structuralist accounts continued to downplay non- economie factors affecting migration; however, they gradually incorporated non-economie factors and their significance in understanding migration. According to Kathie Friedman-Kasaba, the structuralist model generated the same analytieal problems for the perception of gender. Firstly it reduced women's contribution to migration to their economie functions. Secondly it neglected the unequal power relations and hierarchies within households, and lastly it failed to connect households to any other form or unit of social organization, such as friendships, ethnie communities and local networks.ll

According to Sotelo, the first stage of feminist scholarship around the 1970's and 1980's might be labeled 'women and migration'. "This early phase sought to remedy the exclusion of women subjects from immigration issues and to counter sexist as weIl as androcentric biases. However the major tendencies were either the

'add and stir' approach, where women were simply 'added' and compared to men, or the tendency to focus exclusively on women producing skewed 'women only' portraits of immigration."12 Sotelo

11 Kathie Friedman-Kasaba, Gender,Ethnicity and Work in the Lives ofJewish and Italian Women in New York 1870-1924, New York 1996, p28. 12 Pierrete Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gender and US Immigration :Contemporary Trends, Berkeley 1999, p7.

5 argues that the studies of mid-1980's focusing on single independent women's movements from the Caribbean, Mexico and Asia to the

United States remains an interesting aspect in migration literature.

Migration theorists agree that migration studies need to direct their focus towards an engendered narrative of migration. One step in this direction would be to create the appropriate analytical and methodologieal tools and languages to understand gender. 1t is also important to see women as active agents and understand the complexities of household relations, including solidarity, conflict, interactions and strategies. In this context, the analysis comprises the social networks of friends, kin, neighbors, co-workers, community life of female migrants. Multieulturalism, diasporas, hybrid identities and transnationalism may shed light on the relationship between gender and race, ethnicity and culture by focusing on both continuities as weIl as ruptures in the immigrant experience.

As Sotelo argues, gender is a key constitutive element of immigration. "Research is beginning to look at the extent to whieh gender permeates a variety of practiees, identities, and institutions implicated in immigration. Patterns of labor incorporation, globalization, religious practiee and values, ethnie enclave businesses, citizenship, sexuality and ethnie identity are interrogated in ways that reveal how gender is incorporated into a myriad of daily operations and institutional politieal and economie structures".13

13 Pierrete Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gender and US Immigration :Contemporary Trends, Berkeley 1999, p9.

6 II. Oral History, Memory and Transnationalism

"Historiography to this day maintains the ingenuous belief in history as past and something outside of oneself. And it is an irony of history-history in the sense of men's actions-that what is written about it so largely ignores the personal lives of individuals." With these words Luisa Passerini, in Fascism in Popular Memory, a study based on oral testimonies, justified the need for oral history in historical studies.

In this context oral history sets questions about the nature and methodology of existing historiography, which need to be examined.

The most central questions focus on the importance of oral history for historical purposes and the beneficial impact of oral history on historical research. Without providing a full account on the historiography and the need for oral testimonies, we can say that there are reasons which can justify such a preference and legitimize the need for oral accounts.

Oral history is thought to be a more direct and immediate way of eliciting historical information and reproducing it in the meantime.

The interviewees are living people reacting and responding to the historian with a unique sense of immediacy. "Through their accounts the historian is able to witness the everyday side of culture which includes the mentalités of people, the understanding of the world passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition and

7 the conflicts of power that take place on a cultural and symbolic plane rather than within a narrow political sphere."14 Therefore oral accounts may provide a more live1y and immediate version of the historical past as a lived experience.

Furthermore, Luisa Passerini in her work Storia E Soggettivita:

Le Fonti GraU, La Memoria, provides an analysis of oral sources by demonstrating the advantages of oral history, such as the restoration of 'totality'. "Oral history, despite the partiality of its name, gives a hope for a different answer to historical questions. Far from being another branch of history it aspires to restore the totality of history, against specialization and against the spirit of necessity. The answer offered by oral historians seeks to expand the quantity and quality of historical information as well as its methodo10gical too1s. "15 This advantage, according to the author, provides an alternative to the

"over-specialization" that characterizes historical studies.

Moreover, oral history introduces discourses, which correspond to reality in a multiple way that needs to be deciphered. "Oral history is not concerned with selected discourses but has the ambition of introducing a language of totality which wou1d inc1ude al1 the people, even those deprived the righ t to speak and to leave testimonies of their own lives."16 According to Passerini, this totality bestows oral history with the element of democratization. As she comments 'in this c1imate oral history is a manifestation of the need to reinvent an identity, not

14 Luisa Passerini, Torino Operaia e Fascismo,Roma; 1984 pl 15 Luisa Passerini, Storia E Soggetivita: Le Fonti Orali, La Memoria, Firenze 1988, p.32. 16 Ibid, p33.

8 only of sorne specifie social groups, but of everybody: the experience of a miserable immigrant for example, going to a strange land where he does not know anybody and he does not speak the language, becomes a generalized experience of mature capitalism."l7

The English History Workshop attributed to oral history the effort and intention to give history a 'human face', to bring men back on stage, as the protagonists of history-making. "What is interesting for historians of oral history is the humanization of history, the reconstitution of man speaking in first person, and the annihilation of the difference between producers and consumers of history."l8

However, according to Vansina the accounts in first person can only give a version of the historieal past, not historical past itself. "The historian recollects and evaluates critieally the fragments of history offered to him: no matter how perfected his techniques are, he is only providing a reconstruction of the past, always fragmented." 19

Therefore oral historians need to be aware of the fact that oral accounts offer a fragmented dimension and version of the historieal past, not a revival of the past itself.

Finally oral history attains central importance when it is seen as a way to approach gender issues. As Julie Kriucshank comments:

"Oral narratives intersect with social practice and provide a framework for understanding contemporary issues and how stories are inevitably

17 Luisa Passerini, Storia E Soggetivita: Le Fonti Orali, La Memoria, Firenze 1988, p37. 18 Gfr. T. Green, , The Leicester Conference on Oral History', Oral History 1,3, 1972, p.lO, in Luisa Passerini, Storia E Soggetivita: Le Fonti Orali, La Memoria, Firenze 1988 19 Gfr. J. Vansina, Kingdoms ofthe Savanna, Madison University of Wisconsin Press, 1966, in 'Tradizione Orale e Storia Orale: Risultati E Prospettive' Quaderni Storiei, xii, 2, 1977, p340-358.

9 part of larger social, historical and political processes. Women's interviews have central metaphors which make them culturally distinctive and deeply gendered."20 Joan Sangster also believes that if the ethical problems of interpreting other women's lives through oral histories are surpassed then oral history becomes a key for incorporating women in scholarship by demonstrating what is important to them.21

In the same way, Eleonore Kofman suggests: "The se sources

(oral sources) have been better able to reveal the different spatio- temporal dimensions of female migration, the multiplicity of causes for their moves and the often overlapping strategies used by women migrants. It provides a flavor of the heterogeneity of migration, the range of ages at which people migrate, their varying skills, the different reasons for moving, the social relations that facilitate migration and the regimes that influence migrant trajectories. But also they highlight the significance of gender as a key variable in the experience of migration."22

The self-representations given by the interviewees in response to the questions posed follow a recurrent narrative form. "Through the se oral autobiographies, a historian can unveil aspects of self-memory, at times combined with collective memory, and individual mythology

20 Julie Cruickshank, Oral History Narrative Strategies and Native American Historiography: Perspectives from the Yukon Territory in Canada, in Nancy Shoemaker Clearing a Path: Theorizing the Past in Native Ameriean Studies, New York 2000, p5 21 Joan Sangster Telling Our Stories: Feminist Debates and the Use of Oral History, Women's History Review, Vol.3, Numberl, 1994. 22 Eleonore Kofman et al, Gender and International Migration In Europe: Employment Welfare, Polities, London:20oo, p.14.

10 turned into a tradition and shared by a family, a circ1e of fiends and a social or political group."23 This brings us to one of the axis under which the immigrant experience of women is examined in this thesis; memory of the past is an ingrained part of the identity of individuals and the construction of their present status in terms of sex, nationality, ethnicity and social c1ass.

Luisa Passerini defines memOIy as the following: "We assume that memory is the narrative action of an individu al in a social context, is the intention and selection to make sense out of certain events or aspects of the world and gradually, to allow others in this world."24 Therefore, according to the author, the role of the historian is not to re-narrate or judge the memories of people but to understand their function, their selective process and their narrative form. "This is why as oral historians we have to respect memory by providing information on when we collected our stories, with what questions and under which circumstances.25

The brief exploration of the notion of memory conveys another important aspect of the present analysis. As the memories of immigrant women are deployed in narrative forms, what is revealed is that the traditional images and languages for describing an immigrant and narrating her experiences are not fulfilling. The popular image of an immigrant as an impoverished and uprooted person having left behind his old society in order to adapt and prosper to a new one

23 Luisa Passerini, Torino Operaia e Fascismo, Roma: 1984, p19. 24 Luisa Passerini, Storia E Soggetivita: Le Fonti OraU, La Memoria, Firenze 1988 p.I07. 25 Ibid, p111.

11 seems to be no longer valid. "It has become increasingly obvious that immigrants develop networks, activities, patterns of living and ideologies that span their home and host society.26

The complexity characterizing the lives and subjectivities, households and identities of immigrants that transcended national borders called for new analytieal tools and frameworks, when dealing with migration. In this context, several scholars of migration (Linda

Basch, Patricia Pessar, Nina Glick Schiller, Pierrette Hondagneu

Sotelo, Floya Anthias and others) introduced and applied the term

'transnationalism' to de scribe migration experiences.

"Transnationalism is the processes by whieh immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement. We calI these processes transnationalism to emphasize that many immigrants today build social fields that cross geographie, cultural and politieal borders. "27

Transnational theorists have demonstrated that the identification of an individual, an ethnie group or a society with a flXed locality is not self-evident. In what Appadurai called 'deterritorialization', individuals

"create multi-Iocational identities which bridge geographieal spaces, accelerate and densify the movements of people, ideas and products."28

26 Linda Basch et all, Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicarnents and Deterritorialized Nation-States, Amsterdam 1994, p4. 27 Ibid, p7. 28 Deborah Bryceson and Ulla Vuorela, The Transational Farnily: New European Frontiers and Global Networks, Oxford 2002, p6.

12 Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo offers another definition of transnationalism: "To my mind the term should communicate the fact that people's activities may span borders while acknowledging that borders, nation-states and national identities still exist and are of consequence".29 For Guarnizo there is a distinction among group and individual in the context of transnationalism. He comments that at the group level, transnationalism is understood as a series of economic, socio-cultural, and political practical and discursive relations that transcend the territorially bounded jurisdiction of the nation-state. At the individual level, he defines transnationalism as the practices and discourses which are a habitual part of the normal lives of those involved in transnational relations and networks.

One of the most important and influential studies based on the transnational experiences of Caribbean immigrants in the United

States is the study of Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller and Suzan

Szanton Blanc, Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial

Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation-States. In this study transnational migration is inextricably linked to the changing conditions of global capitalism and is analyzed within a global context.

Transnationalism is also a process by which migrants create social fields that cross national boundaries and therefore engage themselves in the nation building processes of more than one nation -states. Their

29 Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gender and US Immigration: Contemporary Trends, Los Angeles 1999, p289.

13 identities and practices are configured by hegemonic categories, such as race, gender and ethnicity.

In this the sis oral history attains a central role for the understanding of the gendered immigrant experience of Greek women to Montreal. The main axis for the analysis is the exploration of the notion of memory, along with the emergence of transnational phenomena initiated by Greek women migrants. l seek to analyze their oral testimonies in the context of the construction and narration of memory as well as to investigate their transnational acts, relations and identities spanning between Greece and Canada.

14 III. Canadian Immigration Policies and the Migration of

Greeks to Canada

Immigration does not simply entail the decision of persons to relocate themselves in a different country. It is mainly a process regulated by the receiving country, in this case Canada. The immigration policies, laws, restrictions and regulations formulate and affect the migratory movements of people towards a destination. In this part, examining the immigration policies endorsed by Canada throughout twentieth century is crucial for the understanding of the

Greek experience in Canada. Meanwhile, it is important to provide an overview of the European movement, as well as an analysis on the specific case of Greek immigration to Canada.

European nationalism throughou t the 19th century led to an unprecedented mobility of peoples and a re-distribution of human capital worldwide. Among them, Greeks, who identify themselves as a nation of immigrants, participated by mobilizing great numbers of its populations towards the multiple migratory paths. Around the end of nineteenth century and throughout twentieth century, Greek migration was at its peak, with the most popular destinations being the United States, Argentina, Venezuela and gradually Australia,

Germany, Belgium and Canada.

Canadian immigration policies are characterized by lack of clarity and consistence, manifesting conflicting interests and

15 uncertainties towards the enforcement of immigration laws.30 Canada became a main destination for immigrant populations around the end of nineteenth century. For Greek population the interest towards

Canada could be traced around 1920's. During these years Canadian intake was high, supported by business and transportation corporations. However, this era for the US was marked by the emergence of nativist, anti-immigrant feelings, whieh had led to the introduction of the quota system for immigration, restricting the admission of migrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Canada attempted to follow the same strategie by restrieting partially migration from these areas and promoting instead migration from

Western Europe.

The economie Depression of the 1930's halted immigration temporarily, while deportations were common.31 During World War II immigration to Canada almost stopped and the anti-Asian racism reached an unparalleled extent. However the years after the War were characterized as the boom for immigrations to Canada. In the late 1940's an International Committee selected displaced persons throughout Europe, a great number of whieh were relocated in

Canada. The Canadian government resettled about one hundred thousand displaced persons. However discriminations did not cease to exist in the grounds of national and ethnie background of immigrants, but also in terms of politieal and ideologieal beliefs. Postwar Canada

30 Reg Whitaker, Canadian Immigration Poliey Sinee Confederation, Ottawa 1991, p3. 31 Because of the pressure to fight unemployment, deportation is seen as a way to guarantee jobs for the indigenous people. From 1930 to 1935, over 28.000 were deported from Canada, approximately 1 in every 3 immigrants. Reg Whitaker, Canadian Immigration Poliey Sinee Confederation, Ottawa 1991

16 however was deeply affected by the atmosphere of Cold War and the domestie constraints, and intrusive methods of control and repression it propagated.32 In this c1imate Canada to sorne degree had to enact controls over immigration, and this had a significant impact on Greek immigrants trying to escape from the Greek civil war in 1947, between communist and conservative powers.

In 1947 Mackenzie King's statements on immigration policy shaped the official formulation of immigration until 1962. In his speech King mentioned the following: "The poliey of the govemment is to foster the growth of the population of Canada by the encouragement of migration. The govemment will seek by legislation, regulation and vigorous administration to ensure the careful selection and permanent settlement of such numbers of immigrants as can be advantageously absorbed in our national economy".33

The major goals of King's policy concentrated on enlarging the population, developing the resources and the standard of living by reducing the dependency on exportations. However "Canada is perfectly within her rights in selecting the immigrants she wants. An alien has no fundamental human right to enter Canada, this is a privilege. AIso, the people of Canada do not wish to make a fundamental alteration in the character of their population through mass migration. The govemment is therefore opposed to large-scale immigration from the Orient."34 The preference towards immigrants

32 Reg Whitaker, Double Standard: The Secret History ofCanadian Immigration, Toronto 1987, p21. 33 Freda Hawkins, Canada and Immigration: Public Poliey and Public Concern, Kingston 1988, p 91. 34 Ibid, p.92.

17 coming from what was called the 'Atlantic triangle', mainly

Anglophones meant that Greeks were not among the favored groups for migrating to Canada.

With the changes in the immigration patterns after World War

II, a new legislative framework was needed, which led to the reform of the migration act in 1952. "According to this reform, landing in

Canada of any person was prohibited except for four categories, arranged in a hierarchy of most to least welcome national origins. At the top were unsponsored British subjects from the UK and the white

Commonwealth, as well as those of American and French origin; second were unsponsored immigrants from specified Western

European countries; third were a broad range of sponsored relatives from Europe, America and few middle eastern countries, at the bottom was a residual category designed to restrict Asians to sponsored close relatives. "35

According to Freda Hawkins the most striking characteristic of postwar immigration was its political character. The receiving countries developed extensive policies for selection and control as well as governmental intervention. In the meantime there was an increase in the communications and negotiations between sending and receiving countries. Sorne European countries such as the

Netherlands and Italy promoted immigration and systematized the assistance of their immigrants upon arrival. 36

35 Reg Whitaker, Canadian Immigration Policy Since Confederation, Ottawa 1991, p.18. 36 Freda Hawkins, Canada and Immigration: Public Policy and Public Concern, Kingston 1988, p. 7.

18 New regulations were enacted in 1962 ending racial discrimination and allowing the immigration of skilled persons without regard to national origins. AlI immigrants could sponsor close relatives with sorne restrictions on Asians and Africans. Sponsored immigration enabled the mass migration of Southern Europeans - among them Greeks- to Canada. Since the end of World War II,

Canada admitted over three million immigrants and more than one million of them were sponsored by relatives. The Canadian White

Paper on Immigration Policy in 1966 stated: "The majority of the sponsored have been drawn from Southem Europe, primarily as a result of the influx of immigrants from the under-developed, rural parts of this region in the early post-war years, the strong family relationships in these areas and the economic pressures to migrate. "37

In 1967 Canadian immigration legislation adapted and enforced the

'point system'.

The sponsored movement became a topic of anxiety and debate throughout the 1960's and 1970's mainly because sponsored immigrants were unselected and were eligible to come to Canada since they had close relatives willing to sponsor them. Sponsored immigrants arrived in Canada after receiving an official 'invitation' by a member of their family who had migrated before them and who could provide housing and a basic financial aid for the newcomers.

"According to estimates in 1963, Italy, Greece and Portugal provided the largest number of sponsored immigrants, more than half of the

37Freda Hawkins, Canada and Immigration: Public Policy and Public Concern, Kingston 1988,p .10.

19 total movement. "38 Since it facilitated the adjustment of newly arrived immigrants, sponsorship was initially viewed as the ideal type of immigration. However over the years, the effectiveness of the system was put into question and the voices demanding its restriction multiplied.

By mid-1960 the demand was directed to skilled, labor and technical categories. "In the 1970's initiated a major review of immigration policies in order to enrich the cultural and social fabric of

Canada, taking into account its federal and bilingual character, facilitate family reunifications, foster intergovernmental negotiations, and halt discriminations in terms of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion and sex."39 The major source countries for Canadian admission in 1970 were Great Britain, United States, West Indies,

Italy, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia, China, India and France.40

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Europe appeared to be the main supply of immigrants to the United States and Canada. Explaining the reasons mobilizing populations to migrate, the emergence of a world economy was among the most important. The industrialization in Europe led to an increasing interdependence of Europe and sorne countries overseas. In the meantime the availability of labor in Europe combined with the scarcity of resources consolidated the decision of Europeans to migrate. The technological advancements and more specifically the

38 Ibid, p.48. 39 Reg Whitaker, Canadian Immigration Policy Since Confederation, Ottawa 1991, p.20. 40 Freda Hawkins, Canada and Immigration: Public Policy and Public Concern, Kingston 1988, p.12.

20 introduction of steamships, the improvements in transport and communication played a significant role. Finally "migration was actively promoted by governments, railways and land companies."41

Moreover, information became significantly more available to larger parts of the population. This promoted a knowledge necessary for people to estimate the benefits from migrating to a different country, as well as what they would encounter upon arrival. "There is evidence to suggest that intra-familial communication was the central channel through which information was transmitted, thereby spurring chain migration."42 Especially for Southern Europeans such as

Greeks, with strong links to local groupings and f$l1ily networks, the main pattern for migrating was through 'chain migrations'.

European women arrived as immigrants either independently or sponsored by relatives, husbands fathers etc. Women could be brought to Canada whenever and in whatever numbers were convenient to immigration authorities. "With the displaced persons especially, there were no trade qualifications to deal with. Prospective employers were prepared to accept as a domestic servant any healthy, able-bodied woman, even if she had never seen a washing machine or cooked a meal in her life."43 In the twentieth century Canadian policies tried to attract English, Irish and Scandinavian women mostly to work as domestic servants. In prewar years women were also recruited to work in factories. After the war, there was a tendency for

41 Dudley Bailles, Emigrationfrom Europe 1815-1930, London 1991, p.50. 42 Deborah Bryceson and Ulla Vuorela, The Transnational Family: New European Frontiers and Global Networks, Oxford 2002, p.35. 43 Milda Danys, Lithuanian Immigration to Canada After the Second World War, Toronto 1986, p. 129.

21 women to return to their homes, while sorne others continued working as domestics, or at factories, stores and offices.

For Greeks immigration is an ingrained part of national history.

Greeks are considered a nation of emigrants mainly because one third of people identifying themselves as Greek, live outside the frontiers of the country.44 Systematized migration begun around 1900's, when recurring conflicts with the Ottoman Empire and occupation of certain areas by Turks force parts of the Greek population in these territories to immigrate. The booming years of Greek migration though date from 1890's to 1970's.

One of the most important reasons forcing Greeks to migrating was the decline of the rural economy. Especially in the region of

Peloponnesus, the greatest number of immigrants departed after the recession caused by what is known in Greek academia as the

'vineyard crisis' of the 1880's and 1890's.45 Closely connected to the economic shrinking cornes the alleged demographic boom of Greece, in the times where families had many members and were unable to sustain them on the basis of rural economy.46 Scarcity of fertile land meant that a family with five or more children could in no way provide for them. Meanwhile, among the 'pull factors', was the widespread

44 It is important to state here that in a ranking for Greek-inhabited cities in the world, Athens, the nation' s capital was first with a population of approximately five million, New York was second, and SIdney Australia was third! th 4 During the end of 19 century the vineyards of France and ltaly undergo a severe crisis of 'phylloxera' a disease eradicating their crops, and eliminating competition for Greek farmers who take over the monopoly. However the recovery of France and Italy lead Greek rural economy to an unprecedented crisis and shrinking of external capital. It is the beginning of the abandonment of villages and the massive waves of urban and Atlantic immigration. 46 E.Vlachos, The Assimilation ofGreeks in the United States, Athens 1968, p. 56.1 use the term "alleged" because many historians nowadays deny the idea of a demographic boom.

22 beHef in the prosperity of the Western world and especially the United

States as well as the allegedly many job opportunities and affluent living conditions.47 In this context, many immigrants were optimistic towards the alleged spirit of tolerance, freedom and allowance to minorities to keep their familial, religious and educational traditions in the receiving countries.48 Finally technological developments and especially steamships enabled an easier and faster journey for Greeks migrating to the Americas.49

Overall, the pace of development in Greece at the beginning of the twentieth century and du ring the first port-war decades was extremely slow and the isolation was combined with the inability of

State to support its rural population. There was a severe economic dec1ine, and the usually mountainous and infertile land was incapable of sustaining large families, whose male members were also obliged to serve in the army for over five years, to participate in long-lasting warfare. Therefore peasant families were deprived of male members who cou Id work in the fields, in order to contribute to family capital.

Migration was not new to the people in small rural towns. Stiff conditions had led them from as early as 1800 to seasonal migrations in the sUITounding large cities and islands. Seasonal migration was mainly associated with women, who departed for periods of six to eight months, in the periods of planting and harvest in the neighboring, more fertile villages. At times, entire families of cutlers

47 Y. Kordatos, The Great History ofGreece, Athens, book 13, p.64 48 , Storia d '!talia: 1861-1913. L 'emigrazione, Cause e Caratteri dei Movimenti Migratori, d.v.09/07/02 49 Rudolph Vecoli, A Century ofEuropean Migrations1939-1930, Chicago: 1991, p. 37.

23 shared their time between their village and more prosperous villages, as peasants or farmers. However, when the overall rural economy dec1ined, even those affluent villages underwent severe crises. The only alternative was migration.

In the early 1900 Canadian immigration policies gave preference to British and Northern European immigrants. Southern Europeans such as Italians, Greeks and Portuguese were not easily accepted.

Greek immigration was sporadic, individual and mainly male and migrants used Canada as a way to migrate ultimately to the United

States. Greeks were not qualified as "preferred immigrants and initially they did not even qualify as Southern Europeans".50 During the 1930's Canada virtually c10sed its doors to immigrants and opened them again after the end of the Second World War.

The postwar situation for Greece was critical: the country had already paid its price participating in the resistance and eventually falling under Nazi occupation. Greece however descended into another bloodshed at the end of World War II, in the form of a civil war (1946-

1949). The two conflicting fronts, the communist forces on the one hand, and the conservative alliance helped by English troops came to a final agreement acknowledging the 'victory' of the 'anti-Boishevik' front.

This long period ofwarfare led the country to underdevelopment in all areas , economic retardation, extensive destruction in its infrastructure, displacement of its population, exile and political

50 Anastasios Tamis, Efi Gavaki, Greek Migration in A ustralia and Canada, Melbourne 2002, p. 87.

24 detention for its people, shortage of jobs and capital and political instability, but above all social polarization based on political beliefs and ideologies. Many people, unable to prosper in a country so deeply affected and divided by World War II and the Civil War, decided to migrate.

In the years after the War, intergovernmental negotiations between Greece and Canada promoted the enactment of schemes for the recruitment of laborers in order to cope with high unemployment and smooth social tensions in Greece. "In 1951 the Greek government took the initiative when it informed that there were over fifty thousand

Greek farm laborers, industrial workers and female domestics available for employment in Canada. Canada initially admitted a group of a thousand people and pleased with the results authorized the entry of others. However the results were soon disappointing. Most

Greek workers had left the frontier regions at the earliest opportunity for the major urban centers to seek jobs in restaurants and 10 factories."51

As the Canadian Minister Jack Pickersgill explained in his portfolio "Invariably those workers who come from Greece would not be considered suitable due to their unwillingness to live in rural areas and the difficulties of learning English or French ... Greek immigrants have a strong tendency to move to the Greek communities, accept

51 Donald Avery, Reluctant Host: Canada 's Response to Immigrant Workers 1896-1994, Toronto 1995, p202.

25 employment with Greek Canadians, and thereby never really

contribute much to Canada."52

In the meantime, the continuing influx of Greek immigrants to

the United States created concems for the American authorities

mainly since most immigrants were unskilled, uneducated rural

laborers. In this context the US imposed the quota system allotting to

the Greeks a rather small percentage. Greek immigrants were thus

directed to other countries such as Canada and Australia.

In the 1950s emigration from Greece was mainly confined to

farmers, domestics and laborers. During this period, about fortY

thousand Greeks arrived as contract workers. In the 1960s especially,

the immigration regulations permitted the sponsorship of relatives

generating the more intense migratory movement of Greeks towards

Canada. Around sixty thousand people arrived in that decade with the

assistance of close relatives responsible for accommodating them and

finding them employment. As Efi Gavaki mentions "during 1965

alone, about 81 % of Greek immigrants were sponsored. "53

Overall, by 1931 around ten thousand Greeks had migrated to

Canada. In the booming years of migration, between 1945 and 1971

there are estimates that about one hundred twenty thousand Greeks

migrated to Canada, eighty per cent of them being sponsored by a

relative. The same sources agree that about fifteen per cent of the

immigrants of that period were women who came to work with

52 Donald Avery, Reluctant Host: Canada's Response to Immigrant Worlœrs 1896-1994, Toronto 1995, p202. 53 Anastasios Tamis, Efi Gavaki, Greek Migration in Australia and Canada, Melbourne 2002, p. 117.

26 contracts, as domestic servants. In the same period around five

hundred thou sand Italians, particularly from the South migrated to

Canada, them also following the path of the 'sponsored migration'

(eighty per cent of Italian immigrants were sponsored), just like the

Greeks.54

Greek immigration continued heavily during the 1970's as a

result of the economic recession throughou t Europe but most

importantly because of the harshness of a cruel dictatorial regime

(1967-1974). After the 1970's Greek immigration came to a standstill.

The economy of the country slowly recovered and currently Greece has

become a country receiving immigrants from former soviet countries,

Albania, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, as well as political refugees.

The census of 1993 demonstrated that there are over two

hundred fifty thousand Greek immigrants living in Canada, most of

them in Quebec and Ontario. (sixty six per cent of Greek immigrants

live in Montreal and Toronto).55 Since the first years of their

settlements Greeks were organized in a number of associations

(AHEPA, Greek Community in Montreal, local, village-based

associations, cultural and religious associations etc)56, churches and

schools for teaching Greek to younger generations. They highly

promote the maintenance of Greek language (spoken in 87% of Greek

54 Sources about the numbers of Greek immigrants are not very systematized since there are undocumented inunigrants, immigrants without visas (especially women) immigrants of Greek descent but without a Greek passport (snch as the immigrants from the islands of the Aegean offrom Northem Greece who arrive with ltalian or Turkish passports until the end of WWII) . 55 , 'Greece', dv 25/07/04. 56 Tina Ioannou, La Communaute Grecque du Quebec, Montreal 1983, p.186

27 homes) and have a high rate of endogamy (640/0) and repatriation

(57%). In Montreal there are a number of Greek radio and television stations, newspapers and Greek-owned stores and agencies of every kind.

According to the data released at the study of the Greek

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most Greeks living in Montreal occupy themselves in business (restaurants, coffee shops etc) while a large number works in industries and constructions. As mentioned previously fifteen percent of women immigrants arriving in the booming years of migration came to work as domestic servants.

However, according to the data of 1995, about ten thousand women work in industries (mainly textile), six thousand occupy themselves in commerce and a high percentage works in family business. 57

57 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Secretariat of Diaspora, Greeks in Diaspora: Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Athens 1995, pp 58,59.

28 IV. Greek Women Immigrants in Montreal through Oral

History

ln order to provide an analysis of the engendered dimension of migration through the case study of Greek women immigrants in

Montreal, 1 consider it necessary to mention the conditions of the interviews, the roles of the interviewer and the interviewees and the main goals of this thesis. It is important, and as Joan Sangster puts it

'respectful' to the women interviewed, to offer this information, in order to understand what they 'really intend to say'.

Initially there has to be a justification of the title of this thesis. ln one of the interviews, a Greek woman immigrant mentioned the things that impressed her after she arrived in Montreal. What she remembered more vividly was one film that she saw in the theatre referring to Native Americans. She described the scene which she believes influenced her life the most "The father was holding a little girl by the hand. Their land was taken and ruined and they had to move elsewhere. When they arrived at this different place, so different from their village, the girl started ctying. Her father then told her 'your roots will be here, away from your home'. 1 never forgot that phrase.

Right at that point 1 realized that for all of us, immigrant women, our roots are here too, in Canada, away from our home." 1 chose this title because all women interviewed agreed that their roots are now in

29 Montreal while they believe that their 'home' is Greece. Finally 1 find that this phrase describes best the spatial transition and duality on which women have based their lives and actions, as it is demonstrated in this thesis.

The interviewees immigrated to Montreal from the 1950's to the

1970's either as individual workers, or as dependents (wives, daughters, mothers, sisters). They came from different regions of

Greece, most of them from Peloponnesus, the southern part of Greece, which is considered to be the poorest, most infertile and arid. AlI of them intended to work and enhance their lives, as weIl as the lives of their relatives in both Canada and Greece. Far from creating stereotypes and rather seeking to defy them all women interviewed claimed to be very family-oriented and courageous for taking the decision to migrate, brave for withstanding the difficulties of migration, and deeply devoted to the maintenance of their Greek identity and culture.

1 met most of the interviewees through social networks. Many of them are members of my family or friends from Greece. They visit

Greece very often and maintain strong familial and social links with their villages. These women facilitated my own arrival, adjustment and life in Montreal. They introduced me to their familial, social and working environments, in which other women became interested in

'talking to a girl who came straight from Greece'.

In this context my status of a young woman, coming from

Greece, fluent in both Greek and English, but mainly studying in the

30 University worked to my benefit. AIl women expressed a kind of tie to and sympathy for me, thin king that 1 was an immigrant myself, reminding them of themselves when they first came to Canada, young, alone and unfamiliar with the customs of the receiving country. It is demonstrative that most of them, when they used English words while talking, translated them for me, thinking that since 1 had been in

Canada for less than a year, 1 could not possibly speak or understand the language, even though they knew that 1 was a student in an

English speaking University.

AH of them developed a motherly attitude towards me, insistent in offering me accommodation, food, coffee and all kinds of assistance.

AH interviews were conducted in Greek and women expressed their happiness for the fact that they could hear such 'good Greek from a native speaker', though this made them reserved and extra-attentive with their own use of Greek language. Finally they all expressed feelings of 'national pride' for a Greek girl going to University. They thought of my project as a matter of womanly national pride, where they had to 'perform' in the best possible way in order to make foreigners understand what Greek women really are, but mostly to help the Greek girl succeed and 'get straight A's'.

This thesis is based on twenty six interviews conducted throughout the whole year (2003-2004.) 1 met with the women several times in order to create a familiar relationship which would enable me to understand better their mentalities, ways of thinking and experiences as weIl as to make them feel more comfortable with my

31 questions. One set of the interviews was conducted at a manufacturing plant in Montreal. In this factory, managed and owned by Greeks, there are forty-three workers, out of which forty-two are

Greek and one is Mexican. 1 interviewed ten of them at their working environment, and 1 also interviewed the Mexican worker in Spanish to explore her experience and views of working with only Greek women around her.

The second set of interviews took place in hou ses where 1 was invited several times for Greek coffee and food. This setting was important since coffee and lunch times are considered main elements of 'Greekness'. The table is where women meet, discuss, gossip and compare their culinary skills which they associate deeply with nationhood and tradition. In the meantime inviting someone to eat and drink coffee with you is considered the most concrete manifestation of hospitality and familiarity. It is an introduction of the

'stranger' to the private space of the woman and her family. In this environment 1 interviewed ten more women. Finally a third set of interviews took place at a restaurant owned by three Greek families.

The women of these three families worked together, helped each other and invited me for the quality of their food, and for the interview.

The interviews started with an explanation from my part on my research and its aims. Most women were interested and impressed by such a choice, and also 'proud' that 1 writing something about the

Greeks, whom they consider 'neglected'. 1 preferred not to ask a lot of questions but instead let them talk, in order to comprehend what they

32 consider important and worth mentioning, how they construct their narratives, what linearities they select, where there are continuities and fluidities and where the se women prefer silences and ruptures.

Following Passerini's example in Torino Operaia E Fascismo 1 avoided phrases which are time and place specifie, in order not to imply the way the discussion should develop.

The twenty six interviews that 1 collected are used selectively.

The analysis is based on the content of the interviews rather than on morphological, historiographical and symbolic grounds. 1 seek to explore the experience of Greek immigrant women from three perspectives: Initially the memories of women of their past, and of the country from which they migrated. These memories are maintained and ingrained within their identities, roles and social interactions, but also contribute to the formation and preservation of transnational links between Greece and Montreal. AIso, 1 seek to explore their experiences of Montreal, as woman immigrants. The issues of labor, family, social networks, participation in national and local organizations, education, and neighborhood links are central for this analysis. Finally 1 investigate the existence and maintenance of transnational links uniting the country of origin with the receiving country. 1 focus on the role of Greek women as actors and initiators of transnational relations, acts and ideologies.

When l started thinking about the reasons and the aims of this thesis, 1 realized that as a Greek, and a woman 1 had a privileged access to these women's world. Speaking their native language was

33 invaluable for talking with, approaching, understanding and analyzing them. Therefore, 1 consider my status important for offering an insight to the case of Greek female immigration to Canada.

The main impetus for researching their case has to do mainly with the lack of studies about immigrant women, and the negligence towards Greek women immigrants. The only mention of Greek women treats them as the appendage of male immigrants or applies to them the same ideas, theories and statistics concerning men. 1 seek to give

Greek women immigrants a voice since their role as immigrants is vital yet underestimated, and their case offers an important and significant insight to the engendered experience of migration overall.

In the meantime, my premise is to demonstrate the inaccuracy of the stereotypical representations of Greek women immigrants, as they appear in the existing studies. Franca Iacovetta argues in her article 'From Contadina to Worker',58 that Southern European women

(such as Italian and Greek) are attributed specifie stereotypes in the literature that are hard to reverse. These stereotypes depict women as: passive, dependent, economically indifferent and obedient to the male breadwinner, mothers of many children who belong exclusively in the kitchen, as individuals with no personal will and no saying in the decisions concerning migration or household strategies, women who have 10st contact with their own kin back in the country of origin. l find that the accounts of Greek women immigrants demonstrate the

58 Franca Iacove~ Such Hardworking People: Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto, Montrea11992.

34 inaccuracy of such arguments and provide an engendered version of the migratory experience.

Finally, through the analysis of the memory, experiences and transnational links of Greek women immigrants, 1 intend to contribute to a woman-sensitive understanding of migration. It is essential to place women at the center of migration studies not simply by adding them as another variable, but by understanding that they are different yet important for our understanding of the migration process. The case of Greek women immigrants should not be perceived as exclusive towards other women immigrants, since the intention is to offer an analysis applicable to immigrant women of every national background.

35 v. "We had to wait for Easter to buy a new pair of shoes": Memories of the past, memories of home.

When we think of women immigrants, our conceptual framework consists of images of impoverished women, victims of the patriarchal structures in their homeland, bearers of many children, appendages of fathers, brothers and husbands, housewives secluded at home with no participation in labor, social and political aspects of life in the host country. This stereotype has become so prominent, powerful and 'romanticized', that it is difficult, even for scholars of migration, to contradict it and think of women as active participants in a world of change, demanding an improvement of their familial, social, economical, political and working lives.

Women's memories are constituents of their identities. They invoke these memories to shape their status as immigrant women, to establish a new home, to overcome the disruptive effects of the migratory experience and to keep or reject their links to the homeland.

As Kathie Friedman-Kasaba argues "understanding women's experiences of migration and establishing the ways that migration affected their status requires exploration into specific aspects of their identities and backgrounds in Europe. "59 This chapter explores the memories of immigrant women, concentrating on family, labor,

59 Kathie Friedman-Kasaba, Memories ofMigration: Gender, Ethnicity and Work in the Lives ofJewish and ltaban Women in New York 1870-1924, New York 1996, p.34.

36 peasant or urban background, education, and the important decision to migrate.

To analyze the background of immigrant women means to place them within the social, political and economic environment of Greece after the Second World War. An impoverished economy, civil war, a destroyed infrastructure, the decline of the rural economy, political instability and persecutions and poor living conditions was the background which women decided to leave. In their accounts women de scribe the harshness of their pre-immigration lives, while others prefer silence using sad phrases such as 'forget it, it was bad, really bad ... '.

Cristina migrated to Canada in 1957 as a single young worker.

Her memories of Greece in the 1950's remain unpleasant:

"My images of Greece at that time are difficult, harsh. We did not

have food to eat, sorne families did not even have bread. We were

working but there were not enough jobs in a village! 1 remember that

we had no light, practically no e1ectrici1y and we were cooking in the

fireplace, and we were washing the c10thes in the river. We had no

light in the houses."60

For Zoe who migrated after her sister's invitation in 1964, at the age of fifteen with other members of her family, memories of Greece are few, yet important:

"There was pover1y, such pover1y. There were people who had no

food. What 1 remember the most though is that our father would buy

60 AlI interviews are translated from Greek to English and the names of people and places have been modified.

37 us shoes once a year. 1 had to wait a whole year for a new pair of

shoes. Every Easter."

For Despo what has lingered in her memory, living at the island of Cephallonia until 1967 when she migrated for Canada, is the secure and peaceful lifestyle.

"1 remember how peaceful and quiet it was. There was no theft, no

criminality, no cunning. Everyone was friendly. 1 remember that my

mother used to leave the money at the door for the rnjlkman to leave

us the milk bottIes in the morning. And none would take it."

Maria came to Canada with her family in 1971. The dictatorial regime in Greece had imposed a strict system of surveillance on the lives and activities of liberal and left-wing supporters which concluded in their persecu tion and exile.

"1 came here leaving schoolleaving everything, in 1971 because the

times were very hard. The junta kicked us out of our own country,

because my father was a member of the Communist party and they

were after him. This is what they were doing then. And 1 remember

my brothers and 1 were asked to leave school because our father was

a Communist."

Olympia migrated to Canada in 1969 after getting married to a

Greek from her village who had migrated to Montreal sorne years before. Her memories of Greece are mostly positive, concentrating only on the celebrations and holiday seasons.

"What 1 remember the most from my life in Greece is how we used to

celebrate. And especiaily Easter. It is the only thing which 1 have not

seen since then. 1 have been back for the summer, for Christmas, for

New Year's but never for Easter. And it is my dream. 1 remember how

we would put tlowers ail over the church and then we would wait for

38 the boys going to high school in the city to come back for the

vacation. They would ail come back and give life to our village which

was dying out slowly- slowly. And 1 knewail these boys because my

brother would go to school with them."

Charoula lived in the capital city of Greece, Athens. Conditions

there were not as harsh as in the rural areas, at least in terms of jobs and poverty. She left for Canada by herself at the age of nineteen in

1975. Her memories, like Olympia's, are pleasant.

"1 went to school until the third year of high school and then 1

stopped because 1 needed to work. But my life was happy. 1

remember going out ail the time, in the ueighborhood with other girls,

1 had my friends and 1 had fun. There were smail neighborhoods in

Athens back theu. And the women would gather at the stairs of a

house and talk. 1 spent my time with your aunt Maria, she was a

mother to me.»

Most of women's memories are surrounded around the familiar core, which for the Greek society of the 1950's includes the extended relatives and the grandparents. Most women left for Canada unmarried, at the ages of twelve to twenty two years old. For most of them their young age and single status meant that the basis of their existence was the familial household. Acting and interacting in the context of a family does not imply patriarchal oppression as many scholars tend to think.

For many young women the private and public sphere were shared with other family members and family was considered a safe haven, a protective mantle from the outside world. Help, solidarity and feelings of love and support to surmount hardships seem to prevail

39 among the accounts. Family in rural and recently urbanized environments played a central and significant role, it was the smallest and densest social and economical unit. On the other hand, the joyous accounts of many women do not deny the existence of frictions, tensions and confrontations among family members. However for the majority of women interviewed, family is in the core of their memories of the pasto

Eutihia, who was 'engaged' through letters to her future husband, with her parents' consent, migrated to Canada alone in

June 1957. At the time she was eighteen years old. She narrates:

'My birthday was on the 28th of June and 1 left for Canada on the

29th! My first time away from my parents, 1 was so scared.

Throughout the whole journey 1 was looking at photographs of my

family. Especially my younger sisters who 1 loved 50 much. We were

six children and 1 was the oldest one.'61

Zoë, Eutihia's younger sister, who migrated to Canada in 1964, after Eutihia's invitation remembers her family positively as weIl.

"My memories of Greece have only to do with the family. As a family

we had a wonderful time. It was because our family lived very

harmonically. My uncles and aunts, my grandmother... of course

there was hunger, and it was hard for my father to feed us, but even

in Canada, there was hunger here too when we first came."

For Koula who migrated in 1973 the hardships of life in Greece after a stiff dictatorship never stood as an obstacle to the happiness of her family living in the rural parts of Crete.

6\ The names of the interviewees have been change

40 "My memories of my home are the best, the most pleasant ones. We

sure1y had to face hunger.... and poverty, sheer poverty. But the love

for each other was irreplaceable. You know, these were more

innocent times. Everybody loved each other, there was no selfi.shness,

no cunning nothing... We were ail one group ...with my relatives."

Katerina migrated to Montreal in 1961, at the age of twenty- one, married with two children. Despite the fact that she left with her own family, she daims that her strongest and most nostalgie memories concentrate exdusively on her nudear family:

"When l first came to Canada, ail 1 can remember is crying. Day and

night crying. This is what happens when you leave such a loving

home. You cannot believe how close 1 was to my family. My brothers

and sisters did not even come to the airport for goodbye. They told me

that the pain of separation would be too much to handle. We said

goodbye at our house."

The importance of family bonds is to a great extent considered the most important element of 'Greekness'. Allegiance to the nudear family served as the fulfillment of personal and collective needs and obligations. But family was not only a loving and protective environment for young people before settling their own homes. What

N. Harney's writes in 'Eh Paesan! Being ltalian in Toronto' can be applied to Greek peasant and semi-urban families. "The household formed an economie unit wherein a11 family members contributed to the labor and subsistence of the family. "62

In order to understand the economie role of a family unit and mainly the raIe and the contribution of women, it is important to look

62 Nickolas de Maria Ramey, Eh Paesan! Being Italian in Toronto, Toronto 1998 p.14.

41 into the situation in Greece around the 1950's. At the beginning of the

twentieth century rural economy underwent a severe crisis with governments lessening the gravity given to agriculture. Fertile land was gathered in the hands of the few, while infertile allotments were cultivated by families with many members. Many peasants especially in the region of Peloponnesus turned towards the solution of local or transatlantic migration.

For small villages, particularly in the South, conditions were exacerbated by decades of political neglect as successive governments failed to support agriculture and provide irrigation, land reforms and financial benefits for peasant families. "When subsistence was impossible, families tried to pursue economic strategies that drew them further into a cash economy."63 As the basic mode of production and social organization, the peasant families relied upon the

solidarity, and the maximum labor power of every member. Meagre incomes were supplemented by the work of women in the fields or their seasonal migration to nearby prosperous towns as field workers in the periods of cultivation or harvest. Women participated in peasant life in equal terms as men did.

Domestic responsibilities laid in the hands of women were also hard and time-consuming and should not be treated as irrelevant.

Franca Iacovetta provides an account of the chores women in

Southern Italy had to deal with daily. These were identical to the everyday routine of Greek peasant women as well: "Domestic

63 Gerald Tulchinsky, Immigration in Canada: Historical Perspectives, Toronto 1994 p. 383

42 responsibilities inc1uded cooking, c1eaning, and child care, as well as

weaving, sewing c1othes, and especially du ring the winter slack

period, producing embroidered linens and crocheted tablec10ths for

bridal trousseaus. They also grew vegetable gardens, fed the animals,

and herder them into grazing areas, made cheese from goat and sheep

milk and often sold the surplus."64

Many women worked in the fields of neighboring fertile villages

for periods of six to eight months a year, during cultivation and

harvest. Their payment did not inc1ude money, but its equivalent in

olive oïl, vegetables, wine, wheat and meat. This was a very important

and irreplaceable contribution for a family, despite the fact that for

many women i~ turned out to be a sort of exploitation, since labor

never corresponded to the compensation they would receive in return.

Koula remembers working with her brothers and sisters in the

fields owned by her family:

"Yes.. .1 remember working at the olive trees and the vineyards. It was

really a very toughjob, too many hours."

Sophia came to Canada with her mother, who remembered the

hardships of peasant life as the most unpleasant memory. Sophia could barely recall how her life was in Greece since she left when she was five.

"1 remember when 1 took my mother to her village, after thirty years.

And she remembered everything. The fields, how could you work and

cultivate them? It was just rocks. What a depressing life! My mother

64 Franca Iacovetta, From Contadina to Worker, in Gerald Tulchinsky, Immigration in Canada: Historical Perspectives, Toronto 1994, p385.

43 begged me 'Please take me away from here. 1 do not miss this at ail'.

So we left."

Memories of working in the fields were not always unpleasant as the ones described. For Eugenia the simplicity of peasant life makes her feel nostalgia:

"1 used to work in the fields, with my father and mother. The entire

family. It was such a hardjob. But 1 miss it. Vou know sometimes 1

wish 1 could go back to it. 1 would never have a problem readjusting

to that."

Eleni, now a PhD student came to Canada at the age of fourteen from a very mountainous and isolated village of Southern Greece.

Despite the hardships of her daily life working in the fields she says that she has idealized peasant life in her mind.

"Of course 1 lived as a peasant but you know what is strange? 1 have

it so idealized in my mind. Gardening, olive trees, sleeping in the

open fields at Taygeto Mountain. Despite the hardships 1 still have it

idealized so much."

For Rena peasant life remains a pleasant memory, at least compared with working at factories ever since she came as an immigrant in Montreal in 1974.

"Of course we were working in the fields. Everybody was working,

men and women, because we were poor. But 1 liked it. 1 liked the way

we were living in our small village. And you know what... working in

the fields was not as bad as working here, because the land was

ours. And we were the commanders!"

Working in the fields as active members of household economic strategies prepared the ground for the recruitment of women in

44 factories, textile industries and family business both when the family migrated to urban centers or across the Atlantic. "For many women living independently or collectively in urban centers, the transition from peasant worker did not require a fundamental break in the values of women long accustomed to contributing many hours of hard labor to the family."65 Many of them worked at home as reconciliation between the families needs and the patriarchal ideologies attributing to women only the private sphere. Many others worked ou tside of the house before migrating to Canada.

Nana migrated to Canada with her husband and two-year-old son. Before migrating to Montreal she had moved from her village to the city-capital of Crete, where she kept a small business as a seamstress.

"1 knew what work was about before coming to Canada 1 did not

work as a peasant, 1 kept a little store at the center of the city, the

center of Chania, 1 was a seamstress." Melina had also left her small village in Peloponnesus seeking a better fortune in Athens, the capital of Greece. Melina was going to school and knew a little mathematics which helped her to work as a cashier at the family business.

"1 was living in Athens; 1 was not a peasant before coming to

Montreal. My father had opened a small convenience store and 1 was

working there as a cashier... "

65 Franca Iacovetta, From Contadina to Worker: Southern Italian Immigrant Working Women in Toronto, 1947-1962, in Gerald Tulchinsky Immigration in Canada: Historical Perspectives, Toronto 1994, p.381

45 Ioanna left with her sisters her small town of Veroia at the furthest North of Greece, to work in urbanized Thessalonica.

"1 cannot say that 1 was ever deprived of things, or that 1 was ever

hungry. 1 was working as a seamstress in Salonica"

Eutihia decided to reconcile her father's wish for his daughters to work at home, with her own wish to make money.

"1 lived in Keratea, a little bit further than Athens. And 1 was working

as a seamstress in the house. My father was a technician. He would

fix the machines in the olive-processing factory. It was because my

father had no land. But that was not enough, 50 1 went myself one

day and 1 bought this sewing machine and 1 got ajob for the army. 1

would sew their 50cks and their pullovers. From wool, that's what the

machine was for. And then 1 would seil them to the Greek army. The

merchant would pass once a month and would bring me the

appropriate wools with matching colors." Marina came to Montreal by herself in 1960 and later on brought other members of her family. She has regretted coming to

Canada because at the point where she left her small, self-run business in Athens was prospering.

"1 had left alone and 1 was living in Athens. 1 had a small store where

1 was sewing and selling pants. My father knew how to sew and he

had taught me, and then when 1 learned he sent me to Athens to go

to a school for sewing and take over his little store. 1 was so good, the

business was going weil. Before 1 migrated 1 had started inviting my

younger sisters in Athens to learn the job and help me out 'cause my

clientele was expanding." As it appears from the oral testimonies cited, women where far from economically indifferent, passive appendages of men perceived

46 as breadwinners. Their roles and contributions to the economical

strategies of their nudear families were decisive. In the meantime

their engagement to the economical field by working as peasants,

seamstresses or cashiers was an introductory phase for what followed

their lives as workers in Canada. This insight into women's

backgrounds provides an understanding on the roles and

responsibilities they would later on uptake as young immigrants.

For many women departing to Canada at a very young age (less

than fifteen years oId) memories of work are scarce. Other than working in the fields along with family members, their strongest

memories come from school life. These memories come as a response

to the representation of women as illiterate members of the family who

had to stay exdusively at home. Many of them daim that they had

learned basic English and French before coming to Canada. In the meantime, their passion for learning disrupted abruptly by either the

situation in Greece (wars, poverty) or by the decision to migrate,

lingered and led many of them to pursue education when they arrived

in Canada.

Cristina is among the first women immigrating to Montreal

alone in 1957. Leaving her village at a very young age, her memories

concentrate on her schoollife in Greece.

"What 1 remember the most is my chiIdhood. When we were playing

and mainly when we were going to school. Nobody had shoes to wear

to go ta school. And each student had the responsibility to bring one

smalliog for the fireplace; otherwise the school had no heating. And 1

remember that most of the time we only had school for six months,

47 because there were many wars back then, and the schooi would stop,

and our teacher would be recruited by the army."

Nana, the woman keeping her sewing store in Chania, mentioned that she never faced any difficulties with language in

Canada, since for many women attending school, English or French was offered as a mandatory course.

"1 started high schooi in Greece and it was mandatory in school to

Iearn French, 1 think it still is. But 1 also remember going to a private

after-schooi institution where 1 Iearned a bit of English."

Melina, the cashier mentioned previously, refers to her abruptly disrupted education in a sense of a trauma, for which she had to show understanding and obey her family's decisions.

"1 wanted to continue school. But my father was poor. He was just a

shoemaker. With his needles he was trying to make money to feed us.

And he was handicapped. My poor mother was the man and the

woman in the family. So they asked me to stop school. Our money

was enough to orny send my oider brother to school. Therefore my

younger brother and 1 had to drop out. What a pityI"

For Matina school brings her positive memories of her childhood. Comparing it to her life as an immigrant in Montreal she recalls her memories of school as the most pleasant experience of her life

"1 went to school and 1 wanted to become a teacher. It never

happened so 1 was so satisfied when my son becam.e a teacher here

in Montreal. But 1 remember my school because 1 used to love

singing. 1 had a beautiful voice and our teacher would place me in the

school band to sing. 1 was singing and dancing, 1 realized that was

happiness. »

48 For Eleni, the PhD student who has idealized her past in a family of peasants, her father's inability to send her to University was the most important reason for her to get married to a Greek-Canadian and migrate with the dream that one day she would be able to continue her studies.

"My father wanted me to go to school but 1 had a passion for it. 1 was

studying, studying relentlessly because one day 1 wanted to go to

University. My father just wanted me to pass, he didn't care if 1 got

A's. And one day, 1 will never forget, he tells me 'you do not have to

work so hard. Either way, even if you do pass the exams, 1 do not

have the money to send you to study in the University. So try to find

yourself a husband."

AH the women interviewed had acquired elementary or even high school education in Greece before arriving in Canada. Sorne of them had even attended courses in French and English. Their accounts manifest how falsified the depiction of women as illiterates is. Furthermore this knowledge of basic math, languages, reading and writing helps explain their adaptability to the host country, their involvement in communities and organizations as secretaries or active members and their encounters with Canadian bureaucracy as immigrants.

The oral accounts in this chapter, focused on the background of women before their migration to Montreal. As it appears from their oral testimonies, life in Greece was marked by poverty, lack of jobs, dec1ine of rural economy, successive wars and political instability.

However these women, even before migrating were not passive

49 observers of men's efforts to sustain a family. Usually living in harmony with their families, they contributed to the household budget by working as peasants in their villages, or as seamstresses, cashiers and employees in urban centers. They all attended school and most of them had a basic knowledge of English and French. Their background provides an insight into how their lives evolved after the decision to migrate.

50 VI. "Stazzito Cristina, Stazzito": Aspects of the Life of

Greek Women Immigrants in Montreal.

Exploring the lives and memories of women before migrating defies specifie stereotypes attributed to them for years and prepares the soil for what cornes after... their lives after migrating. Kathie

Friedman-Kasaba mentions: "Hardly did we think of women as sturdy young workers responsibly transforming their environment into a place in which others might feel safe; as daughters and mothers who did not just make do, but did well as skilled artisans, operators, and social activists. Hardly did we consider those who faced the pressures of prejudice and discrimination. Rarely, and this is the root of the problem have we thought of them as individu al participants, interpreting and improvising their lives against shifting economic, political and social contexts."66

The focus of this chapter is on the decision to migrate, the long and exhausting trip to Canada, the first impressions of the new homeland, the sharing of hou ses and lives with other women, the role of women as laborers and as mothers, the social interactions and activities, the education and finally the shifting identities, transformations and emancipations of women across the Atlantic.

J oy Parr writes in an article called The Skilled Emigrant and her

Kin: Gender, Culture and Labour Recruitment that: "Emigration is

66 Kathie Friedman-Kasaba, Memories ofMigration: Gender, Ethnicily and Work in the Lives ofJewish and Italian Women in New York, 1870-1924, New York 1996, p32.

51 generally understood as a gendered process, beginning for men with a solitary experiment in distant lands, for women with a long interlude between two worlds while they wait for word that it is safe to follow.

For men the journey is seen as a response to international differentials in the labour market, for women as a way to begin or consolidate a married life. Emigration usually seems to cast men in active roles and women in adaptive roles, men being part of a structured system and women living out of consequences of subjective choices. "67

Following the thoughts of Joy Parr, such descriptions omit to refer to the pragmatic reasons for migrating, within or ou tside the contexts of marriage. According to Joy Parr, Donna Gabaccia and many others, single female migration is not at all uncommon.

Meanwhile women migrating du ring adulthood and at a marriageable age does not necessary imply that they migrated in order to get married. For many of them, marriage before or after migration did not change their status as laborers. Finally the cases of women who chose to migrate in order to escape an imminent marriage in their country are not uncommon.

The accounts of women that 1 interviewed reveal that only seven out of the twenty-six women came to Canada to get married. But even for them, marriage was not the only incentive for their migration. Most of them considered other aspects, such as the poverty they faced in

67 Joy Parr, The Skilled Emigrant and Her Kin: Gender, Culture, and Labour Recruitment, in Gerald Tulchinsky Immigration in Canada: Historical Perspectives, Toronto 1994, p334.

52 Greece, the job opportunities they could encounter in Canada, the future ability to invite other members of their family, the chance to pursue higher education, the escape from patriarchal oppression or the system of dowry, reunion with other members of their family who preceded them, or with a boyfriend or fiancée who had departed for

Canada.

Melina, came to Canada in April 1968 and her marriage was settled by a mutual friend of hers and her future husband. She calculated all the benefits she would gain from it, and then decided to follow her husband to Montreal.

"I decided to come to Canada because back in those days

there was the so-called dowry. 1 loved a man in Greece so much but

my parents did not allow me to marry him. After this 1 went mad, and

1 told them firmly 'Ok, but 1 am telling you one thing, the man 1 will

end up manying, 1 will not pay him to love me! No dowry! The man

who will marry me will love me for who 1 am!' When our common

friend and later best man told me about a guy from Canada

interested in me, 1 said '1 want to see him fust'. When 1 fust saw my

husband 1 started laughing at him. 1 remember 1 was working at the

store, 1 was helping a client and my husband comes in with two other

man, his brother and Christo. Both Christo and his brother were taU,

and my husband was so short! 1 ran and hid from him. 1 said to

myself 'there is no way 1 will marry this man!' But when he came and

shook my hand, my sou! said 'I do not like this man but he will be my

husband'. That was it, 1 married him and 1 came here, for a betler

lifie. "

53 Eutihia, the young girl helping her family by sewing and selling c10thes for the Greek army had no initial interest on her husband, until the moment when he sent a letter from Canada, asking her parents and her own permission to marry her.

"1 came to Canada when my husband, fiancée back then, sent an

invitation. He had sent a letter to my parents saying that he wanted

to marry me. He mentioned that he would bring me to Canada for 3

years, we would make money and then come back to Greece. My

mother told me about it, and initially 1 mocked him. Because we had

17 years age difference. 1 was 18 and he was 351 The time passed and

1 had no intention of marrying him. He wrote again, expecting an

answer from me. My mother asked me 'do you have a relationship?'

you know, my parents were educated people. 1 said no. My mother

estimated the situation telling me that at least Aleko is nice and we

know his family they live next door. But she asked me if 1 wanted to

leave. This was not even a question. Back then every girl had the

dream to migrate, the American dream. We considered it the Blessed

Land. So 1 wrote to him asking him what kind of dowry he was

expecting. And he said 'Nothing. 1 just want the girl.' So this swayed

me, saying that he does not care about dowries hejust wants me. We

got engaged in November of 1956 and in June he sent my invitation." Olympia had fallen in love with her husband before he migrated to Canada. She was waiting for him to come back and ask her officially to marry him.

"The reason 1 came to Canada was love. My husband had

come to marry me. And when 1 saw him... My parents were in

between. They wanted me to marry him because he was a nice guy

and we knew his family weil in the village, but they did not want me

54 to migrate. But 1 said 'he is the man 1 want to many'. 1 did not know

what 1 would find in Canada but 1 did not care. We got married on

October 8 and on the 18th we were at Mirabel."

For Rena, the girl from the island of Cephalonia working in the fields, her love for her husband had developed years before her husband came to Canada.

"1 came to Canada in 1974 because oflove. 1 knewmy husband since

school...you know. But then he came to Canada and 1 was waiting.

And 1 came to the airport but 1 had a delay. My husband was waiting

and he thought 1 fooled him, so he threw the flowers in the garbage

and left. 1 took a taxi to go home."

For two women the marriage was arranged by families. Eleni was fourteen years old when her father decided that it wou Id be to her benefit to get married to a Greek-Canadian man. For Marina, her father saw her marriage to a Greek immigrant in Montreal as an opportunity for Marina to later on bring her sisters to Canada as weIl and avoid dowries for three daughters.

Eleni narrates:

"My husband had come for vacation with bis father. His brother had

gotten married to a French Canadian and their father was furious. He

was determined that he would not lose bis other son. So he brought

him to Greece with the only purpose of finding him a Greek wife. And

the proposals started. My husband was only 21 years oid. The fust

girl that they showed hlm., he did not like. The second either. And

then he saw me and he liked me. Nobody knew how old 1 was. And

when they asked my father he was o:fIended thinking that they were

asking such questions to see if 1 am a virgin or not. We got married

and the night of the wedding we left for Montreal. At the airport 1 took

55 off my wedding ring because they would understand that 1 am his

wlle. The officers got suspicious and askedmy father-in-law

questions. 'Who is she? Why isn't she in school etc' He said that 1 am

his niece! 1 had no choice but to marry him. My father had always

been a whlner about how he only had 3 daughters and he was poor

and as if it was not enough 1 got a birth injury when 1 was born. So

they had me convinced that 1 was handicapped and 1 could not get a

better marriage deal. You know, they over-dramaticized things. 1

wanted to study in the University, but my dad said there was no way.

He told me 'l'hink of your future'. This was a life decision then. So 1

was sitting with my best friend in the school yard and we were

thinking if 1 should marry the guy or not. 1 said, 'if 1 go to Canada 1

williose all my friends, but think about it, it will be the longest school

trip ever. The major reason was that 1 wanted to continue my

education. 1 had told my husband when we were looking at the stars.

And here 1 am now, doing my PhD."

Marina, the girl who had taken over her fathers sewing store regrets to this day the decision of her father to send her to Montreal through an arranged marriage:

"1 was working by myself in Athens, and my unc1e who was in

Canada was working at the same restaurant as my future husband.

So he wrote to my father and then my dad called me and said 'Come

to the village immediately, your unc1e Nicko found a groom for you. 1

did not want to go at all. But 1 was stupid and 1 did not speak up for

myself, 1 thought that 1 had to respect my father. And then one man

from my village tells my dad 'are you crazy, you are sending your

daughter to the unknown'. So he came home sad and he told me 'My

child 1 honestly wish that they will find a reason to not allow you to

migrate, 1 do not know the doctors, or even the political beliefs' you

56 know, in case we were communists, because then he would not be

embarrassed towards the in-Iaws, he would say 'she was not

admitted to Canada'. And when he told me that, 1 was only 16 and

yet 1 told him... 'Yoo late rather! (with anger) Now it is way too latel' He

started crying. He understood that he should not have sent me. 1

left... "

These cases demonstrated that marriage could at times be imposed by parents unable to afford the dowty system or hopeful that their daughters would help their nuc1ear families with remittances, or by inviting younger brothers and sisters to Canada. However, for most women marriage was their personal desire either because they had relationships with immigrant men, or for other personal reasons such as enhancing finances, getting educated and finding a job. What appears to be important yet absolutely silenced by migration theorists is the case ofwomen inviting their future husbands to migrate.

Cristina, the young girl who left from what she described previously as her village's misery for a better life, is among the women who worked in Canada for years and then invited a man from her village to come to Montreal and marry her:

"1 had come to Canada to work. My brother was here before

me and they had told me that there were many jobs and good money.

Sorne years later 1 brought my husband from Greece. We did not have

any relationships but 1 knew him from my village. My mother told me

'He is a nice guy and his is an orphan, why don't you bring him

there?' So 1 did."

57 Foteini came to Canada in 1956 by herself. She did not have any relatives or friends and her father had bought the invitation from an agency which was charging invitations four thousand drachmas!68

"First 1 brought here my brother, and then 1 brought my husband

too. 1 did not love hùn or anything, 1 had just seen him a couple of

times. 1 was in Canada for 7 years aIready, and 1 knew that my

parents liked hùn. We knew each other's familles. So 1 brought hùn

here and we got married."

Charoula came to Canada in 1975, invited by her aunt Cristina who was mentioned earlier. She had a relationship with her husband before coming to Montreal. He came with a tourist visa and she married him to acquire a permanent residence.

"1 loved my husband before 1 came here. That one year that we spent

apart we would write letlers to each other an the time. And when he

came he was in a tourist visa for just a month, so we got married

immediately. But my relatives here, the people 1 was staying with

were so negative. 'No, he is not good enough for you.' 1 had so much

pressure. Maybe they were trying to protect me, but it was in the

wrong way. They of course did not know that my major reason

coming to Canada was to find the opportunity and marry hùn. 1 did

not listen to anybody and 1 married him.'

AIl these accounts bring into mind what Franca Iacovetta said:

"Many married women shared with their husbands the desire to immigrate. They believed in the 'dream of America' and were convinced that several years of hard work would secure wealth and comfortable life for them. Sorne were impressed by the sojoumers who

68 This priee is extrernely high, if we consider that the priee for rent was around 50 drachrnas.

58 had retumed to the home town wealthier men .. Others received letters from friends and family and traveled to join them. "69

Nana came to Canada in 1960 from the island of Crete where as

1 mentioned she kept her own Httle store in the center of Chania. Both her and her husband decided together to migrate:

"My brother was here before us. My husband and 1 came for a

financial improvement here. After the war it was not easy in Greece.

We were weil off but still, there was room for improvement. My

husband told me 'AIl our brothers and sisters are in Canada What

are we doing here by ourselves?' 80 we decided to leave."

Despo works to this day at a textile industry. She migrated with her husband and her son in 1967. She de scribes their decision as following:

"We decided to come to Canada because it was my dream to buy an

apartment in Athens. It was such a dream! 80 1 thought that 1 would

stay here for 3 years and then go back and buy my apartment. 1

ended up staying here for 30 years. At least 1 eventually bought that

apartment. " Evangelia came to Canada at the age of twenty four. She met her husband in Greece but married him in Canada later on. Her migration involved economical reasons.

"My cousins (girls) were here and they told me that Canada is nice

and that there are plenty of jobs. 80 1 thought about it, 1 wanted a

betier future. lnitially 1 feU that 1 would oruy have to stay for five

years and then 1 would have enough money to go back. But nothing

changed. 1 left Greece as a worker and 1 am still a worker in Canada."

69 Franca Iacovetta, From Contadina to Worker, in Gerald Tulchlnsky, Immigration to Canada: Historical Perspectives, Toronto 1994, p.387.

59 Katerina regrets her decision to migrate. She thinks that her life did not improve by coming to Canada.

"1 came with my husband. It was both our decision to work and built

a betler future for our children. So we asked his brother to invite us

here and he did."

A similar case is the story of Antonia who migrated to Canada in 1974 with her husband and four children.

"1 remember that my husband had come to Canada as a tourist, to

see his sister who was here before us. So he said that it was so nice

and so prosperous. We did not give it a second thought. 1 had to do

something for my four children. His sister invited us and we came." For Myrto, a young girl migrating to Canada the decision was taken mostly by her mother, but she shared the dream of migrating.

" 1 came to Canada with my mother. Our sister was here three years

before by herseIf so we came after. We wanted a betler Iife since our

father had 'left' us."

Lela came to Montreal at the age of seventeen. She was invited by her sister who appears in this thesis as Marina.

" 1 came to Canada because my sister invited me. She was here some

years before. She wanted help with the chiIdren and everything. And

it would be easier for me to find ajob here." For Panagiota the decision that she and her husband took in 1960 to come to Montreal was a correct one.

"1 came because my brother-in-law was here before us and had

opened the door. We came for a betler future. Boats, God knows how

many boats brought people to Canada every single day, ail of us

seeking a betler tomorrow."

60 Sometimes the economical opportunities and the job offers in Canada were not the only reason for migrating. In two cases women had thought of coming to Montreal because they had heard of the prosperity and the opportunities offered to immigrants. However the tuming point for their decision to migrate was political persecutions.

This is the case of Maria whose father was involved in the communist party and of Ioulia whose brother was killed by the communist army during the Civil War.

"We came to Montreal to find a better life. My father was a member of

the communist party, persecuted and my brothers and 1 were asked

to Ieave school. 1 thought that it would be the best opportunity to

Ieave Greece work and get married in Canada"

"1 wanted to Ieave because 1 had heard that the wages here were

much better than in Greece. And then the Communist rebels killed

mybrother. They had a trial for three men, my brother and the

doctor's sons and they executed themaIl three at Monodentri. So that

was it. My whole family abandoned the village! 1 came to Canada and

1 did not visit Greece unti11986. Almost 30 years!" As it appears most women migrated individually or with their families for a better life in Canada. Sorne of them came married; sorne got married while in Montreal as immigrants. As Donna Gabaccia comments: " Regardless of their precise origin, women began their transformation from the female half of the other side to female immigrant in response to the demands of capitalist expansion ... demands involving little variations. "70 Meanwhile for all

70 Donna Gabaccia, From the Other Side: Women, Gender & Immigrant Life in the u.s. 1820-1990, Bloomington 1994, p.13.

61 almost all of the migration was characterized by what is called 'chain

migration', performed by the majority of immigrants.71 Most women

migrated within their familial network, receiving invitations or

migrating with members of their family.

The decision to migrate was followed by the long and

exhausting trip to the distant continent. For most of the women the

ten to twenty day trip remained in their memory a traumatic

experience. It is a transitional point from the protective mantle of the

family to the fearful unknown. Most women traveled alone and

someone was waiting for them upon arrival. Others were accompanied

by rnembers of their family, husbands, parents, older brothers and .. sisters, children and even distant uncles and aunts. The trip

symbolized for all of thern one single thing: the beginning of their

immigrant status.

As Franca Iacovetta argues: "Women's reactions to leaving home

and to the trip varied. While sorne enjoyed the food and dancing

aboard ship, others feared their children might fall over-board or

disturb passengers by crying in the cabin at night. And at Halifax they

feared being separated from their children." The accounts of wornen

give us an insight to these rnixed feelings.

Panagiota traveled by boat, accompanied by her husband and

her two-year-old daughter:

"What a long journeyl And don't think that we were the only ones

immigrating. Vou should have seen how many stops we made in Ita1y,

71 Yans-Mc Laughlin Virginia, Immigration Reeonsidered: His/ory, Sod%gy and Polities, New York: 1990,p220

62 in Spain. People, people and more people! Another Greek girl and l,

we got sick right when we were out in the Ocean. We could not get off

our beds. We did not know if it was day or night! The other

passengers inside were singing and dancing together, but 1 could not

eat at aU. One woman had told us that the Italians were cooking . horse and we should avoid eating in the boat. There was a Greek and

he would bring me in my cabin an apple and some bread. And this is

how 1 survived for so many days."

Zoe the young girl who migrated with her whole family after her sister sent them an invitation keeps photographs of her boat journey:

"1 came in 1964, exactly 40 years ago. 1 was fifteen, with my mom

and dad and my 2 sisters. We traveled with "Queen Frederica", the

big boat. Later my aunt sent us pictures of ourselves on the boat and

she told me 'My little girl, you looked like a lion in a cage'. 1 did not

want to come here at aU." The most important aspect of the joumey for women traveling alone was the feeling of security that derived from the certainty that someone was waiting for them at the port or airport. Sorne women were expecting to see their future husband, who they had not seen for years (if ever) and did not remember. AU women take pleasure in narrating stories of their first encounters with their fiancées upon their arrival. Despo, the woman so opposed to her migration and marriage arranged by her father and uncle, is one of them:

"1 was traveling with my mother's cousin who was going to the States

and he left me in Halifax. He told another Greek passenger 'take care

of her from now on, her fiancée will pick her up at the port. So at the

port this man tells me. 'Wait here 1 will go to the information and ask

for your husband's name.' 1 see a guy approaching me, skinny and

63 short and hairy and 1 said to myself 'Oh my God! Is this my

husband? What happened to the handsome, taU man in the picture?'

So the skinny short guy tells me 'Hey cousin, let me present you your

fiancée.' My heart went back to its place and 1 started laughing as if

there is no tomorrow. Do you have any idea how many women came

with a picture of a handsome men in their hands and they found that

the picture was fake and the prince was a monster?"

For Antonia, the woman who was flattered by her future husband's daims that he wanted nothing but the girl, and certainly no dowry de scribes her journey to Canada as a journey of fear. The longest part of her interview is based on this long and tiring journey, implying the importance and gravity it holds in her memories.

"1 left and 1 was on the boat for 8 days. It was my first time away from

my parents and 1 was crying relentlessly. The other women on the

boat were trying to console me, telling me that 1 at least knew where

and to who 1 was going. We were aU going to the same place. To Kiti

mat. Do you know where that is? Next to Alaska We arrived in

Montreal and stayed there for one night, at my brother-in-Iaw who

took aU the girls to bis house. From there, bis wife put us in the

train. It took us 72 hours with the speed train!!1 Ten days in the boat,

22 hours Halifax-Montreal and then another 72 to Alaska! AlI we

could see was trees and plains and rivers, and it made you wonder

'where the hell am 1 going?'. One of the women spoke a little bit of

English so at least we could buy food in the train. After so many

hours we finally arrive there. My husband, bis brother and my

sister-in-Iaw were waiting. When 1 saw them my husband was

holding a bouquet of red roses. 1 did not see them right away and 1

thought that nobody was waiting for me. 1 started crying in despair.

Finally 1 saw them! 1 had never seen them before but 1 hugged them

64 with such passion, as if there were my own brothers. My husband

was just staring at me and he did not give me the flowers. He was in

shock. We went to a restaurant to eat and my sister-in-Iaw told him.

Finally Petro, give the girl the flowers. (laugh)"

One of the women, Foteini, who came to Canada to work, with a fake invitation that her father had paid for, arrived with no one waiting for her. This made it one of the most traumatic experiences in her life.

"What 1 remember is that the plane (1 came with airplane back then!)

was full of girls who were coming as domestic servants. And they

stuck on their shirts one small pin on their shirts to be

distinguishable for the immigration office. Me... nothing. We got off

the plane and 1 took my smallluggage and then sheer fear got into

me. Every girl from the plane was gone and 1 was still there. With my

luggage. And everyone was wondering. 1 had no address to go to. A

man approached me, he was Greek and told me that if nobody

showed up to get me he could take me to his house. 1 was traveling

with his sisters and he told me that for him it would be as if he had

an extra sister. Then a guy from the immigration came and he spoke

to me in Greek. He asked me 'why did you come ifyou have nobody

to go to?' 1 had an address of a woman who was from our village, but

she was not a relative or anything. They had told me to call her in

case 1 needed anything. So 1 left with this guy, and he really treated

me like a sister as he had said, for three days. Then 1 found that

lady's address and went to meet her."

After their arrival, these women met a new world. 1t was not only the shock of a long journey and the encounter with mostly strangers. What was more important was the dual transition which

65 they had to undergo. AU had left their own country for a new one, and the transition was between Greece and Canada. There was also another important transition from a rural environment to an industrialized one. Thus the move from a small isolated village to a large city like Montreal was the second transition for the young newly arrived immigrants.

For Melina, as for many others, the impressions were negative:

"We left the airport and went straight to my brother-in-law's who was

living in New Bordeaux. 1 saw the houses and my soul started

hurting. It was right when the snow had started melting at the

beginning of April and my first reaction was to go back to Greece."

For Eleni, the girl who left Greece at the age of fourteen, pretending to be her father-in-law's niece, the first images of Canada had to do with nature and with the duality 'Greece-Canada' and

'rural-urban'.

"1 came in October. From the airplane 1 could see that there were no

Mountains and 1 thought 'what an ugly place, no mountains.' 1

thought that the sky had no color and that the houses were aU

identical, nothing unique about theml 1 went to my husband's house

and they had carpet everywhere llke aU Canadians do, and 1 did not

take off my shoes as they do here. 1 was wearing heels and 1 could

not walk in the house at aU. It was a shock, a double shock, not just

from one country to the other, but also from rural to urban. Tlùs is

why 1 had such a trauma." Katerina and Rena associate their first bad impressions with the difference in the weather.

66 "Awful, really awful. 1 came in a period where there was rain

evexyday. 1 thought that the buildings were black, the sky was black

and all 1 could think was the blue sky of my country and the sun. 1

just want to leave immediately."

"Despair, unhappiness and snow, snow, snow. More than 1 had ever

seen in my entire life. 1 wanted to leave and never come back to this

damned place."

Eugenia's bad impressions had to do with nature but also with the fact that she felt herself a stranger towards her husband's family.

"1 did not like it at all. When 1 fust came 1 realized that 1 could not

understand the language, and my husband's family were strangers to

me." Finally for Lela the impressions concentrate exclusively on the nature.

"You know what my fust impression was? That the trees were so

ugly. Not like Greece, there were as ifyou had set them on fuel" For all women, the first impression of the new country was predominantly negative. However, it seems that this negativity lay more in the experience of separation and rupture from the known, familiar, and personal to something different, unknown and impersonal. The women interviewed try to find reasons why the new country was so appalling to them, while the true reason was that they felt alone, unprotected, afraid, uncomfortable and alienated from their surrounding environment. Their memories emphasize minor differences between the two worlds and their feelings are rarely unleashed.

67 In an effort to establish familiar links around them, Greeks inhabited in areas where they cou Id live next to other Greek families preceding them. As Donna Gabaccia argues, "the place where immigrants lived heavily influenced their opportunities to meet, socialize and solve problems collectively." It is also reasonable to

surmise that in a culture, or at a time in the culture, when the dominant values are non-pluralistie, those groups who do not fall within the favored categories of racial, ethnie or politieal prototypes are likely to be treated as 'second class', li not suffer direct blows in their social lives. This is why all women interviewed emphasized their preferences to live among Greeks or in what they called 'Greek neighborhoods' in Park Extension, Outremont and Laval. It made them feel familiar, credited and sociallyequal. Family, neighborhood and nationality was a safe haven against the hazards of immigrant life.72

Citing from Donna Gabaccia, "neighborhoods had special importance as social arenas for married immigrant women. Few immigrants of any background or sex recognized firm lines separating family from community or household from neighborhood. In cities, immigrants left their do ors open or unlatched, encouraging frequent and casual visiting. Family life spilled out of the apartment, down the corridor, onto the sidewalk and into the street." For the women interviewed living with relatives to share the rent or at least living with

72 , The Social Psychology ofImmigration: the Greek American Experience, Chicago State University, copywright1989, revised 1993, d.v.16/07 ID 1

68 Greeks or among Greeks was of vital importance for their settlement.

It was also a very explicit manifestation of the strong familial links and the devotion to chain migration performed by Greek for years.

For Cristina who invited her husband, young nephews and nieces after her individual arrival to Canada, her house, in a Greek neighborhood was shared with all the newly arrived.

"1 used to live with my brother's family. And when 1 got married and

had my fust child 1 sti11lived with my brother's family. But then after

a year we got our own apartment and we moved there. However 1

used to have my young nephewand niece with me for years."

Eutihia moved from 'Alaska' as she calls the area where her husband worked, for Montreal since there were more Greeks there.

She mentions that what she missed the most when living in Kitimat was the church. They had to cali a priest from Vancouver to come and perform weddings and funerals. In Montreal she initially lived with in laws ..

"My brother-in-law lived in St Urbain, so we went there and rented one of

their rooms. But bis wife got sick and went to hospital so 1 had to take care

of all the men and her children, washing, cooking, and c1eaning everything. 1

asked my husband to get our own apartment, and then 1 invited my parents

my two brothers and my two sisters. We lived all together in the Greek

neighborhood in Park Extension."

Koula now lives in Laval and daims that she does not speak a word of English since she has always been surrounded by Greeks.

"1 remember that every person in my neighborhood in Park Ex was

Greek, and when 1 moved in Laval, all my neighbors were Greek."

69 Nana, who came to Canada with her husband to rejoin her brothers and sisters, lived with them when she first arrived in

Montreal.

"When 1 first came we lived with my brother for 6 months and then

we got our own house. We rented a small apartment and then later

we bought our own house. In the Greek part, in Laval."

Melina who found Montreal ugly and the houses black had a difficulty curtailing her dreams by living in a small apartment that they could afford. The memories of a house are also central in the accounts of Olympia, Despo, Evangelia, Rena and Ioulia.

Melina: "When we first came we did not have a house and we were

looking for one. But 1 did not like any of them 1 was used to the

houses in Greece. We found a house somewhere that 1 liked and we

moved there."

Olympia: "1 was so happy being finally married to the man 1 loved so

everything seemed fantastic. We lived in a small house, a one and a

half at the Greek area in Park Extension. And then later on we moved

to Laval which is full of Greeks. Almost every house."

Despo: "We live in Park Avenue with the family of our bestman. We

lived in Park Ex for years and then moved to Laval. Always in

Hellenism."

Evangelia: "1 live since my arrival at the same house in Park Ex, surrounded

by Greeks, this is why 1 never had to learn English."

Rena: "1 lived in Park Ex, we were renting a 3 and a half. And we

shared it with four couples, 3 Greek couples and a couple from

Hungary."

"We shared our apartment with a family ofItalian immigrants."

70 Ioulia: "When we first came we lived three familles together in two

rooms. Ail women would decide together what we will cook and we aIl

shared the rent, 34$." Life in a Greek-segregated area and in shared houses among relatives and compatriots provided women with a social arena where they could seek solidarity, help and guidance, economical support and strong familial links. Through this environment most women were helpful to find wage labor to improve their 'living'. However as we noted earlier labor was not new to Greek women immigrants. Wage- earning women faced greater autonomy and at times escaped the strict supervision of parents and brothers.

As Joy Parr argues migration had changed the involvement of women in the labor market. For Canada in particular, many jobs that were thought to be men's work were also open to women, and at times women's wages in Canada were fifty per cent higher than those of men.73 Therefore recruiting women laborers in factOIy was a new reality to which Greeks had to adapt. Most women worked in textile industries, as domestic servants or next to parents and husbands in family-owned businesses, especially restaurants.

A wage-working woman had to face the stereotypes and discrimination against her prevailing within the Greek communities in

Montreal. Working mothers were considered negligent to their children, and husbands of working women were perceived as economically unsuccessful. "Because few immigrant men were the

73 Joy Parr, The Skilled Immigrant and Her Kin, in Gerald Tulchinsky Immigration in Canada: Historical Perspectives Toronto 1994, p337.

71 only breadwinners for their fami1ies, they may not have defined their masculinity in those terms."74 As Joy Parr mentions: "There are examples of women themselves, while largely supporting their households, struggling to maintain for their children the illusion of the husband as breadwinner." Meanwhile they were forced to intercept their work when having children and return to it when the priority to work did not coincide the priority of motherhood.

Cristina started working at a textile industry immediately after her arrival, as a single skilled immigrant.

"My brother spoke a little bit of English and he took me to a factoty,

and my job was to eut the threads from the dresses. For six months

because after 1 learned how to use the machines and 1 started

sewing. But it was hard because there were no Greek girls in the

factoty, only one who taught me how to use the machine. Evetybody

eise was Italian, Hungarian or Polish." For Eutihia the decision to work since her husband was unemployed for over two months was hindered by her brother-in-Iaw:

"My husband got furious. "There is no way you are going to work.

Only the immoral women go to work. He tried to sway my husband

not to let me work but 1 was firm. 1 am going to workl 1 found another

lady working for a textile industry and she took me there as a

seamstress."

For Zoe, Eutihia's sister wage work in Montreal started with a stolen social insurance card, since she was less than sixte en and could not work in the factories:

74 Donna Gabaccia, From the Other Side: Women, Gender and Immigrant Life in the u.s. 1820-1990, Bloomington 1994, p65.

72 "My father had this flaw, the Greek mentality. So while we were in

Greece he did not aIlow me and my sisters to go and work at the big

industries that had opened around Athens. He used to say'What?

Jacobo's daughters to go to factories? This would be shameful forget

it!' But when we came here 1 even got another girl's working card to

go and work. If he had aIlowed us to work in Greece 1 don't think we

would need to migrate. 1 started working in the factories and then

when 1 got married my husband bought a restaurant. 1 was making

pizzas. 1 think 1 was the only woman in Montreal lifting pizzas with

such force. But 1 made it."

Nana, already used to working with her husband at their sewing store in Chania, continued working immediately after coming to

Montreal.

"My husband went to a factory for one year and then we opened our

own stores. We had three stores selling furniture and wall-papers. So

1 started working there, but 1 also kept myself occupied at home. 1

was a seamstress in Greece, so right when 1 came 1 found my

clientele, aIl of them Jewish. And the house was full of clients, to this

day."

For Melina who had worked as a cashier in her father's convenience store, working as a married woman was problematic.

"1 went to work in 1979, eleven years after 1 came to Canada My

husband had told me '1 am marrying you to have a family, not to

work, unless it becomes necessary.' 1 was a seamstress from Greece

so 1 went to a textile industry. 1 remember that 1 started working on a

Friday and they used to pay us every second week. When 1 went to

get paid, 1 got my wage and it was 63$ for a day of work. What 1 feU

bothered me so much that 1 realized if 1 had working right when 1

73 came to Canada 1 would have left for Greece without a second

thought."

Eleni who came to Canada with her Greek-Canadian husband when she was fourteen, work was not acceptable by her in laws.

"1 remember that 1 wanted to work but 1 had no papers and no language.

And of course my in-Iaws did not want me to work. They expected Panagioti

to work and me to stay at home a1l day."

Evangelia is bitter and full of complaints about the way workers are treated to this day by Canadian law.

"1 think that coming to work here in the factories did not pay off as it

was supposed to. Canada brought working hands but had no laws

protecting its workers. The time where jobs were plenty is long gone.

80 why are we here for? What is Canada doing for our future as

workers?"

Rena changed various industries until she settled for the one she is working for the last fifteen years.

"My sister-in-Iaw was working at the leather industry so 1 went there.

Then 1 went to another industry where they made socks. 1 did not like

it. 1 came here because they make skirts and dresses. 1 also worked

withjeans for sevenyears." For Foteini, the young girl who arrived at Dorval airport without knowing anybody and without anybody expecting her, the only woman she knew and had the address for directed her to find ajob as a domestic servant:

"80 that woman, my compatriot, told me that the best solution would

be for me to work as a domestic servant. It was hard for me, 1 did not

know, 1 had never been outside my father's house. 8he told me to go

to the Greek community in Outremont because rich ladies came often

74 and searched for servants. So 1 did. And the same day 1 take my

luggage and go to the rich lady's house. A real palace! 1 had never

even dreamt of such a house. She was good madame. She was a

widow and had two very tough children. At the beginning 1 had major

problems. But it was not bad. For six months 1 was working non

stop. My compatriot got worried and tried to track me. She found the

phone-number and called me. She explained to me that it is my right

to have one day off. To go out, meet other girls doing the same job. 1

did not know. My madame after this even taught me the way to the

church where 1 met with another thirty girls, working as domestic

servants. Then 1 left and went to work for a Jewish lady. 1 liked it

more there because the children were much more disciplined. Then 1

went to work at a cigar factory because 1 had invited my brothers

from Greece and 1 could no longer live-in. It was not good at all. Then

they invented a machine for making cigars and they downsized the

employees from 350 to 50. 1 was part of the 300. 1 went to a factory

making crystals. And there everyone was Italian, so 1 learned Italian

myself. 1 still speak it with my neighbors."

Sophia recalls her mother working as a domestic servant as well:

"My mother started working for this Jewish family. And she had

heard stories from other girls how they were exploited by their

employees, but not them. They treated her like a daughter."

As it appears from the narratives of immigrant women, the

stereotype having them as economically stagnant and indifferent

individuals is far from being true. Women participated in the capitalist

transformations of their times, contributed to their familial income, gained control and autonomy and fulfilled their dreams for a better

75 future for themselves and their children. However labor shifted their roles in multiple ways.

Even though female labor was not new to Greek women, it introduced significant changes for their lives, and particularly in their roles as mothers. Without the assistance of family members, such as mothers, sisters and cousins, women had to choose between leaving their children alone at home, or trusting other women with whom they shared no links. As Franca Iacovetta points out in her article From

Cordadina to Worker women found the supervision of their children to be the most difficult problem they encountered upon arrival.

The women interviewed c1aimed that they all made strong efforts to have their children growing up with the supervision of their parents. Such is the case of Charoula, Koula, Olympia and many others:

Charoula: "It was very hard bringing up children here. What most

women did was to try and share their time with their husbands.

Usually we would work morning shifts and our husbands would take

night shifts at the restaurant. 1 would come home running from the

restaurant to see iftheir ok. They spent all day with their father. And

then in the aftemoon he would leave and 1 would take over. We

certainly did not want our children to grow up with strangers. And

this is the most important pride of our lives. Bringing up our children

ourselves!"

Koula: "My husband was totally opposed to leaving the children to a

foreign woman. So we decided to switch shifts. 1 would work in the

moming and he would work at nights. And after every child 1 would

take at least two to three years o:ffto be with the baby."

76 Olympia: "We would never leave our child with a stranger. Even if

they were Greek. My husband and 1 took care of our children and

then 1 started making c10thes at home, so that 1 could be with them

aU day."

For sorne of them, since both parents had to work for many hours and could not share the time spent with the children, the only option would be to leave their children completely alone in the house.

Such is the case of Katerina:

"We would leave them a10ne at home. And this was extremely hard

because my children were used to the company and lavishing of

grandmothers and aunts back in Greece. So 1 asked my boss to at

least a110w me to receive one phone ca1l from them everyday, after

they got back from school. But my poor children were a10ne and

scared, so they kept ca1ling for no reason. 'Mom, 1 am afraid of the

thunders' 'Mom Lefteri is crying' mom this, mom that. And 1

remember one day, she ca11ed, my daughter, and told me that my son

Lefteri was missing. 1 10st the earth under my feet. His father and 1

started running around Park Extension, we asked every little boy,

until we found him. 1 remember that 1 hit him that time. And then 1

started crying out of regret." A very small minority of the interviewees (only two) trusted their children to a 'foreign woman' since they c1aimed that it was a more acceptable solution than daycare. But in these two cases women seem very displeased and even apologetic about their decision. Marina's narrative expresses such complaint:

"When we had my son Jimmy, then we rea1ized that we were short in

money. So 1 had to go to work, and Jimmy had to go to that English

lady's house. 1 was paying her to keep him. 1 remember that whatever

77 1 made in the factory would go to pay her and the grocery store. 1

would take him first thing in the morning and in the break for lunch,

1 would not even have coffee. 1 would run to her house to see if the

chlld is ok. And 1 kept asking her 'Did Jimmy eat weIl?' and she

would always say 'Yes Mrs Stephanou, do not worry. Jimmy is eating

really weil.' One day though, since 1 had realized that Jimmy was

losing weight 1 went to her house unexpected1y. Jimmy was hungry

and crying, and you know what she did? You want me to teil you

what she did? She put makeup, how you caU it, blush! Blush on bis

cheeks to look red! So that's it, 1 stopped it. 1 started taking care of

Jimmy myself and feeding him myself. 1 saw him devouring bis food

and said 'Oh my baby you almost died with this awful woman!"

While the children were growing up, the most important

concerns of their mothers entailed their education and their

'Greekness'. AlI mothers interviewed sent their children to Greek

school, 'Socrates', 'Demosthenes' or 'Aristotle'. Education is the most

important social denominator for Greek society and women daim that

there is nothing as important and valuable to them then seeing their

children achieving high-rank positions, especially as lawyers, engineers and doctors. Along with their educational and professional

success all mothers tried to transmit to their children the Greek values, traditions and customs. Then their constant hope is to see their children married to Greek-Canadians. AlI mothers interviewed expressed such wish.

However what seems to be the most important effort of Greek mothers is to educate their children in speaking the Greek language.

AlI women speak to their children in Greek. Katerina mentioned:

78 "You see nature? You see the smaIl kittens and the female cat taking

care of them. It is always the female, never the male. If the mother is

not Greek, and if she does not pass the Greek values to her children,

then forget it. The children will never be Greek. Speaking to them in

Greek is the most essential task. Otherwise we will be lost."

Most mothers interviewed stated that their inability to speak

English has its roots to their consistent efforts to speak Greek to their children. Therefore, for Greek women, language came to play a crucial role for their socialization, interactions and involvements in the

Canadian community. Inside their households, in their Greek inhabited neighborhoods, and in their Greek working environment,

Greek was the dominant language. Language became an obstacle that they had to surmount.

Women considered language a necessary to01 for their dai1y encounters with bureaucracy, for dealing with doctors and authorities, learning their rights as women and workers and being able to work. Most of them preferred areas to live and work where

Greek was the dominant language and thus retarded and resisted their assimilation. Others, such as Melina, Maria, Nana and Charoula made efforts to learn the language in schools in Greece. Many of them though faced problems which they ail de scribe in a comical tone.

Cristina worked various jobs where she enjoys joking about her problems with English language:

"1 went to the first factory and the manager explained to me how to

put the pieces together to make a dress. 1 did not understand the

language so when 1 started working 1 made aIl the dresses with one

79 sleeve. (laugh) My manager comes at noon and sees them. He gets

red and he would hide one hand behind his back and keep the other

one high up. (standing up to show she starts laughing hard) He was

trying to tell me 'what have you done. Do women have one arm?' 1

went home crying and my brother came to the factory to ask him

why. He said that 1 am young and 1 can learn the job. 1 was too

embarrassed to go back so he send me a cheque with 14$!" For Cristina English was not the only language obstacle in a

working environment full of Italians.

"When 1 was working at that same factory, 1 was usuaIly next to this

ltalian girl. 1 was talking with my Greek girlfriend aIl the time and the

ltalian would look at me and say 'Stazzito Cristina, stazzito'. 1 asked

and they told me that in slang it means 'Shut up'. 1 went to my friend

and asked her. '1 need to learn the work for 'shut up', so she told me

that it is 'shut up' and for me to remember, there was a guy in our

village whom we called Sharapi (he was Greek-American and he used

this phrase, so it was his nickname). So 1 go to the Italian girl, but 1

could not remember. This guy's real name was Kanaoti, so which one

was right for shut-up? Was it Kanaoti or Sharapi? 1 started telling her

'Kanaoti Angelica Kanaoti'. Nothing no response. So 1 changed it

'Sharapi Angelica, Sharapi'. She understood and she said 'Cristina,

you reaIly learned English." Despo refers to her first encounter with the Immigration Office when she wanted to become a Canadian citizen.

"1 go there and the Officer asked me 'how old are you miss?' And 1

answer 'ten years!!l' 1 thought he asked me how many years 1 am in

Canada 'How old are you?' 1 said 10! And he said 'Bravo, it does not

look that way. (Laughter)"

80 Katerina had a similar misunderstanding with a client calling the industry where she was working.

"1 was working and my boss left for two hours so he told me, 'If you

hear the phone, pick it up'. The phone rang; 1 pick it up and say

exactly what 1 had heard. 'Heeelow?' The voice responds 'the boss

here?' And 1 answer 'No sir, the bus at the corner'. (Laughter) He said

boss and 1 understood bus! My boss came and asked if anyone called

and 1 answered. 'Yes, a crazy guy asking for the bus."

Many women such as Olympia, Zoe, Maria, Rena and Koula keeping the Greek language and neglecting to learn English or French was important for their children's sake. Especially Rena claims that in her house her husband forbid children from speaking anything else but Greek. In the meantime bilingualism in Quebec created even more uncertainties, especially since by law the children of immigrants had to attend French school. This resulted in the paradox of parents speaking sorne English and children speaking French. The problems arising from bilingualism appear in Evangelia's account.

"1 go to the hospital to get a check-up and, you know how most

Greeks speak English right? So the doctor tells me 'I do not speak

English, 1 only speak French.' So 1 got really mad and 1 asked him

'Really? Did you go to University? Did you swear the Hippocratic

oath? Vou are supposed to take care ofyour patients no matter what

language they speak. From where 1 come from every little child in

school speaks Greek, English and French!' 1 told him that this

country is not just his. It is our country too, we came here, we had

children here and most likely we will die here."

81 For Foteini, the domestic servant who was working at the

Jewish lady's hou se, a small event made her appreciate the

understanding of her employer towards the fact that she could not

speak proper English.

"1 was working at the house and they had. a litile boy. So one

moming, he was eight years old, and it was heavy snow outside so 1

was helping the boy to put on his coat. And 1 told him the only

phrase that 1 had heard in English 'Come on Charlie, come on'. And 1

do not know why, maybe because 1 had an accent, the boy said 'You

are stupid!'. His mother heard him. She got mad and she punished

him for the whole day. He was in his room without food nothing. That

impressed me the most. 1 started crying, 1 called my agency to explain

to them what happened and asked them to change the madame's

mind. They told me that it is up to her and her husband. Her

husband came at night and told him to come and apologize to me. He

came and he said '1 am tsony (he could not speak c1early) 1 won't do

it again'. 1 was very impressed even though it was not my fault."

For Olympia watching the other girls in the train reading books

in English was the main incentive for learning both English and

French.

"1 was watching them as they were reading, and 1 loved the books.

These letters and the fact that looked so sophisticated. So despite the

fact that 1 was married with children 1 went to a night school and 1

learned English and French, and 1 also met so many Greek girls who

were my c1assmates."

For Aliki, who came to Canada at a younger age than the other women interviewed and went to school, language played an important role:

82 "1 remember we had to take a course caIled something like 'English

for the New Canadian'. And we aIl hated it because it made us feel

stupid. Then in the classroom we would try to speak in English but

we did not really need it. In Outremont High, 1 think there were sixty

percent Greek. So out of the classroom we started speaking Greek

again. But in public places, and especiaIly buses we did not want to

speak Greek at aIl. We hated that repeated question 'where did you

come from?' And we had completely rejected Greek music. Only

English music Pink Floyd and Carlos Santana Later, when 1 met my

husband, we secretly started listening to some Greek songs."

Greek women immigrants devoted most of their time between family chores, supervision of their children and hours of work in factories, textile industries or as domestic servants. Their free time was scarce, their language skills limited and their responsibilities multiple; however socialization was an important element of their identity. Most women's social ties included their kinship, neighborhood, working environment and friends coming from the same village in Greece.

These contexts of socialization helped main tain a connection between women's past and present, confirmed their relations and values, allowed socialization in their mother tongue withou t ethnic or racial discriminations and prejudices and provided networks of assistance and solidarity. Most women commented on the assistance they gained from such networks and particularly in terms of information necessruy for a newly-arrived, such as finding a hou se or a job, baby-sitting for children, suggesting a good doctor or lawyer,

83 helping them to circulate around Montreal and to know where they can shop. But for most of them socialization generates feelings of seIf fulfillment, happiness and harmony between community members and delight in interacting with other women.

Zoe gives a description of the kind of entertainment women preferred to go to.

"We used to go to Greek clubs, mostly bouzouki., but also the

churches and the local Greek associations organize dances and

festivities where we all go, and 1 remember going with my girlfriends

to the Greek cinema in Park Ex, it was called Rialto, every Saturday.

Personally 1 am member of the School Board for Socrates and for

Demosthenes, the Greek schools. 1 am also in charge for organizing

Greek dances for the school's pupils and their parents." For her sister Eutihia her delight in entertainment was hindered by her seventeen years oider husband. However, she managed to find herway:

"1 always loved dancing and going out shopping or celebrating. But

the problem )\Tas that my husband was oIder than me. And 1 guess

this is the complaint of my life. He was 17 years oIder, so think about

it. 1 was twenty and life impressed. 1 was impressed by dances, and

buying dresses for the dance, and going to the hairdresser. But my

husband was almost 40, so he had lived his life, he was not as

excited as 1 was. 1 remember we got invitations for a wedding or a

dance and 1 would dress up, and then he would sit on the couch and

say 'we are not going anywhere now, 1 am tired'. So 1 decided that 1

will not be going out with him. 1 told him that since he is not

interested 1 will be going out with my girlfriends. And this is what 1

did."

84 Aliki, the young student of Outremont High enjoyed spending her after-school hours with her girlfriends in Park Extension:

"After school, my girlfriends and 1 would go for long walks around

Park Ex, or for ice-cream, aU tlùs of course was a pretext to meet

boys. And we would go to Rialto, the Greek cinema evety Sunday.

Since 1 went to school here, 1 would receive invitations from non-

Greeks to go to parties, but my parents did not allow me to go. They

said that since they did not knew these familles it was impossible to

let me go." Nana lives in Laval, at a neighborhood full of Greek families. In her neighborhood there is the biggest Greek Orthodox church in

Montreal called '-imios Stavros'. Nana, and many other women participate in 'Philoptohos'.75

"Ail Greek women in Laval are members of the Philoptohos. We also

participate in the School Boards of Socrates and Demosthenes. But

there are everyday things too. You know, my neighborhood is full of

Greek women and we invite each other almost daily for coffee or for

dinner."

Melina is also a member of Philoptohos who enjoys the company and the activities of Greek women.

"1 have to say that 1 never felt 1 am in xenitia (foreign land). 1 never

felt homesick or nostalgic, because 1 had aU these friends here. 1

remember asking my cousin Thomas to keep the children for me and

1 would go out with my friends. We loved going to Queen Elizabeth

Hotel for coffee. We also invite each other to our houses very often.

75 Philoptohos means 'friend of the poor'. It is a women-only organization, supported by the Orthodox church, which organizes charities, gathers money for the need of the Greek community, the Churches and the Greek schools in Montreal. It bas branches aIl over North America since it was founded in New York at the beginning of the 20th century. At times it involves sending money in Greece, to be used for charities or to restore Churches. The woIDen of Philoptohos organize dances, festivities, national celebrations, ceremonies and publish their own magazine.

85 And then we aU got involved in the Philoptohos. We do many things

for the community."

Olympia is characterized by all her friends as the 'busy bee' of

the Greek community in Laval. Her social activities are many, and so

are her friends.

"The extension of my house is my neighborhood. 1 love sharing

moments with my neighbors, drinking coffee, having dinner. And

then 1 went to school, to learn English so 1 met aU these Greek girls

and 1 remember going to day-trips with them. Then, working with my

husband in our restaurant expanded my horizons. 1 met even more

people. So when we retired 1 missed this daily socialization. So 1

became member of the Philoptohos. We aU cook Greek food for

charity, we collect money, as much as 500.000$, we restored the

churches, we bought furniture for the Greek schools, we work a lot.

Every week we have a meeting to outline our projects. 1 am very

proud. And my house is always open to friends. If 1 feellike going out

for coffee with my friends at 10 at night, my husband does not stop

me. He knows 1 am too social. But 1 respect bis wish to go to drink

coffee at the Greek kafenio (coffee place) too."

For Lela, going to church or participating to its associations and activities did not necessarily serve religious purposes.

"1 do not think that we went to church because we were so religious.

We liked meeting other Greek women and chatting. Most of the times

we just stayed at the church's basement and we had coffee." Wh en Eleni thought about what she missed the most from

Greece, she replied 'rouges'. This was the custom of women meeting in the evening outside of their houses, usually at the stairs, and

86 chatting. Women of all ages participated, and at times the discussions

lasted untillate at night.

"1 missed saying 'Good morning' to an my neighbors as 1 did in

Greece. But most of all 1 missed rouges. Here everytbing is so 'dead'

in the evenings. Vou want to go out, meet with other women in your

neighborhood, discuss your problems nothing. This is why 1 loved

Park Extension too." Despo, living in Park Extension ever since she came to

Montreal, recalls daily meetings with her neighbors, in the way that

Eleni described:

"With my mends, we meet everyday. We drink coffee together for over

30 years. 1 remember the first years we would sit on the floor (laugh)

because we had no furniture! And of course we socialize with our kin.

This is very important." Antonia who works in Hutchinson factories for over thirty years,

her co-workers are like family to her.

"With the girls here in the factory, we are like sisters. We are the first

to go to each other's happiness or sorrow. And we are the first ones to

celebrate together Christmas, Easter, the 25th of March (Greek

Independence Day)." Eugenia sheds tears when she reca11s her weekly entertainment in bouzouki-c1ubs with her co-workers and friends.

"Back then Hellenism was powerful and omnipresent. 1 remember

how Many bouzouki-c1ubs there were. And they would bring over

here the big names, the most famous singers, straight from Greece.

Think about it! To listen to Marinella, to Kazatzidi, to Angelopoulo,

here in Montreal!!! Vou cannot imagine how much we would cry

listening to their xenitia (foreign land) songs. Kazatzidi's songs were

87 aIl referring to the immigrants. AIl the big names passed from

Montreal. But aIl women, we had our program. Five days of work,

Saturday at the hairdresser's and then Sunday bouzouki."

Ioanna remembers how her co-workers initiated her to the

sociallife and traditions of Canada when she first arrived.

"1 remember they would always take me to beaches. Then again you

know what kind of beaches 1 am talking about. By the lake, not like

Greece. They enjoyed going to rivers and lakes."

In a joking way Maria mentions that her friendships in the

factory are not the only ones. She is actually very well-known in Park

Extension.

"If Maria (talking about herself in 3rd person) goes out in Park

Extension everybody waives. 1 know every woman. Greek, 1talian,

Chinese, Blacks, Jewish. 1 am thinking that if 1 run for elections 1 will

come first (laughter). This is how we should be, it is a multi-cultural

society. And we have to help each other out. Fight for our rights."

Charoula, devoted to her kin and the families of best men

(koumparoi) organized her daily routine by sharing chores with other woman relatives.

"With my mends and my 'maids of honor' we would hang out daily.

EspeciaIly with the wife of my cousin Angelo. We brought up our

children together. Our children were around the same age and 1

remember me and Aliki sitting them on the table and feeding aIl of

them with one spoon. And then Olympia, when 1 had my second

child, she kept my 4- year-old son for about a month. We would go

and help each other at christenings, weddings everything."

Greek women in Montreal felt the need to socialize, from the very first moments of their arrival in Canada. As Marina commented

88 for 'everyone of us it was as if we were drowning, so we had to help each other to float, to swim'. Far from simply 'floating' on the multicultural surface of Canada, women managed to redefine themselves and their femininity, to transform their identities and to create a new, amalgamated notion of womanhood, deeply afIected by the experience of migration.

Traditional patriarchal domination thus placed the man in the role of the representative and protector of the women's life, interests and as Franca Iacovetta phrased it, 'honor'. This situation shifted after migration.76 The degree of subordination was not the same and one strong reason for that was that women immigrants quickly entered the workforce. Records have shown that in host countries and especially Canada jobs that were considered to be "men's work" were open to women and this played a major role in changing the perception of gender.77 U pon landing, both as females and immigrants, women had to confront new and different gender assumptions.78

This transition from the value system, mentalities and attitudes of Greek patriarchal society in the 1950's to a more emancipating environment in Canada is described by women in many different ways. It seems that for each one of them the point of this transition and its realization was uniquely experienced. Melina daims that the

76 Franca lacovetta, From Contadina to Worker, in Gerald Tulchinsky, Immigration in Canada: His/orical Perspectives, Toronto 1994. 77 Joy Parr: The skiUed Immigrant and ber Kin: Gender, Culture and Labor Recruitment, in Gerald Tulchinsky, Immigration in Canada: Historical Perspectives, Toronto 1994, p337 78 Donna Gabaccia, From the Other Side: Women, Gender and Immigrant Life in the US 1820-1990, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 1994, p26

89 reason for her oppression in Greece was her lack of financial power and the authority exercised by the male members of her family.

"1 do not know, in Greece 1 cannot say that women were free. But it was

the circumstances that made it this way. It was mostly a matter of

money. Ifyou did not have money howwouldyou go out aIl the time? ln

Canada there was more prosperity, this is why women are free." For Olympia there was no such a thing as oppression and she attributes it to the fact that her brothers were all educated:

"1 never feU oppressed because my brothers were educated, and my

father adored me. But even when 1 married my husband there was never

oppression. We had understanding... " For Eleni, the moment of 'emancipation' came with Canadian legislation:

"1 came to Canada, and sometime in the 1980' they changed the

legislation so women could keep their maiden last name. My husband

and father-in-law went crazy. They would not even negotiate. And

initially 1 shared the same values. But after 1 went to University 1 was

very influenced by feminist writings and especially Simone de Beauvoir.

So 1 changed my name to my maiden name. Everybody hated it. And

when somebody called for advertising at home and my husband picked

up, they had my maiden name so they would ask him 'Mr Christou?'

(laughter) My maiden name! He would scream for hours. But even for my

education, my in-Iaws did not allow me. So 1 had to make up an excuse. 1

told them that 1 need English and French to get a job and that after

college 1 would stop. They accepted it. Then 1 wanted to go to university. 1

used another excuse that 1 wanted a higher salary to help buy a house

later on. So they agreed. When 1 wanted to do Masters they had died, so 1

did not need any more excuses."

90 Katerina mentions that there was no real oppression towards young girls in Greece and this is what made them even freer when they arrived in Canada.

"There was no actual oppression. We let them have the illusion that they

controlled us but it was not the case. Anyway, 1 had no problems, and

especially since we were working what could they say? For Zoe, her father's oppressive mind changed because of the circumstances he encountered in Canada:

"1 remember when we first came, it was winter and it was freezing

outside. But my father with his mentality would not let us wear pants.

And then one day he came and ms moustache was frozen. He asked my

mother to buy us pants the next day. And then in Greece he would not

let us work, but here with the economic situation of my family we had to.

Either way he was keeping my payments and he would only give me 5$ a

week. And from this money 1 had to save to buy Coca-cola and a new

pair of shoes.»

For Cristina, Greek women's nature did not lead them to acting

'immorally',

"In Canada you had the chance to flirt more, to go out more, and we did.

But we were not immoral. We were used by Greece and we could not

change. 1 remember that as Greek girls we were not even used to eating

in restaurants. And even in the factory, where there was a restaurant we

would not go, we would bring our own food from home." The women interviewed agreed unanimously that women were somewhat oppressed in Greece, but wage-work, adjustment to

Canadian values and mentalities, education and equality concerning the chores of the household and the responsibilities over children,

91 created a 'liberating' ground for them. Coming to Canada meant adjusting to the different perceptions of womanhood that they encountered. Charoula mentioned that her father was not at all oppressive because 'he was a logical man, he had lived in Canada as an immigrant for five years before getting married to my mother'.

Migration created a space that linked together two distinctly gendered worlds. On the one hand there was the more restrictive, patriarchal Greek society, placing women in an oppressed 'habitus' , and on the other there was the liberating perception of womanhood in

Canada. This transition should not be viewed as a fast, revolutionary process, but rather as a long, difficult and gradual procedure combining at its initial stages characteristics of both worlds.

"Immigrant women did not necessarily see all of their own former lives negatively. They generally did not suffer exceptionally from male domination, nor did they escape into a modem world free of patriarchal relations abroad. And they did not accept the lives of modern American women as unequivocally positive role models. "79

Solidarity, assistance, social interactions, community initiatives and kinship ties, created a network of active, interdependent, happy women, who in the meantime felt gradually 'emancipated' from patriarchal structures. They were delighted by the practices of chatting at the stairs of their shared apartments, feeding their children together, helping each other to learn a job, dancing at

79 Donna Gabaccia, From the Other Side: Women, Gender and Immigrant Life in the US 1820~1990, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 1994 p134

92 bouzouki-clubs and celebrating Christmas together. Social ties maintained to this day, reveal an image of woman that is very distant from the isolated hou sewife , from the passive, illiterate, obedient to and oppressed by her husband immigrant.

ln this chapter 1 have sought to illustrate the multi-faceted aspects of womanhood and migration through the narratives of Greek women immigrants in Montreal. An image of Greek women which began with their stereotypical perception as idle housewives and continued with exploring their journey to the Canadian shores. After deciding to migrate these women had to surmount their fear of the long trip to the unknown carrying among their luggage the mentalities and powerfulness of patriarchal families. And once this long-feared trip was over, new hardships were awaiting.

Their gendered response was strong, active and courageous.

They established their homes around relatives and the protective setting of the Greek community. They entered the workforce while caring for their children and negotiating their roles as mothers and wage-workers. They tried to learn the language and faced the problems they encountered with a good sense of humor. They established social networks based on solidarity, assistance and entertainment. They did not resort to pre-conceived notions about them, nor to traditional patriarchal structures.

However, the community in Montreal was not the only field of activism, socialization, familial relationships and networks of assistance. What follows is an analysis of transnationalism as a

93 gendered experience. Linda Basch introduces the term transmigrants for "immigrants who develop and maintain multiple relationships- familial, economic, social, organizational religious and political-that span national borders. In the following chapter 1 illustrate that

'transmigrants' can also be women.80

80 Linda Basch et al, Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postc%nial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation-States, Amsterdam 1994, p7.

94 VII. "We are still in Greece, we never left": Aspects of

Gender and Transnationalism

For Hondagneu-Sotelo, the emergence of transnationalism as a critical op tic for conceptualizing migration mirrors the emergence of gender as: "Gender and transnationalism grow in importance as central theoretical principles in migration scholarship and as key characteristics of migration change: for example, the rising magnitude and multitude of migrations, the increasing proportion of women migrating, and the access migrants have to rapid transportation, telecommunications, and other technologies that facilitate transnational processes."81

Examining the gendered experience of migration through the aspect of transnationalism enables us to analyze the 'lived' experiences of women, challenging our notions of nationhood, womanhood, social and ethnic identity. In this chapter 1 analyze the transnational dimension of Greek women's migration to Montreal seen through the transnational prism for family, assistance, land- ownership, media and communications, dual residency and transformed gendered identity.

As Linda Basch argues in her study about Haitian transnational families, many immigrants realize that maintaining their personalized kin networks has been critical to their migrations. "The impetus to main tain personal links comes not only from loyalty and sentiment

81 Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gender and US Immigration: Contemporary Trends, Berkeley 1999, p290.

95 but from a growing realization of the precariousness of rooting oneself away from home."82 Transnational families are based on assistance, errands, common interests, and interdependence, fluidity of products and remittances and even supervision of younger children.

As Donna Gabaccia argues, immigrant women forged many links in migration chains. Orten women were intermediaries for the chain migration of family members. "Immigrant households opened their doors to whole families of recently arrived kin and friends". From the women interviewed, the vast majority daims that through their familial links they assisted members of their families in Greece to come to Canada and improve their living conditions. Being particularly sensitive towards their younger sisters with which most of them kept frequent contact through letters, they managed to 'open the door' for their migration.

Eutihia brought to Canada her father, mother, two brothers and two sisters after receiving letters from them complaining about the situation in Greece. Cristina invited her husband and much later her nephew and two nieces, who lived with her and worked by her side.

Foteini sent invitations to her brothers and later on to her husband, while Marina assisted the migration of both her sisters. Chain immigration was based on transnational links main tained through communications as well as feelings of loyalty and obligation towards the nudear family.

82 Linda Basch et al, Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Pos/colonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation-States, Amsterdam 1994, p.167.

96 However transnational families live, to this day, between

Canada and Greece. Sorne family members decided to live permanently in Greece, while sorne others accepted and ingrained the idea that they had come to Canada to stay. In this context, all of the women interviewed have first degree relatives, such as brothers, sisters and parents, who live in Greece. Melina' s mother, brothers, and sisters, Zoe's and Eutihia's brothers, Cristina's brothers and sisters, Koula's brothers, Eleni's sisters, remain in Greece. Katerina commented on this 'transnational essence of family' by saying: "1 have made up rny rnind, for as long as l live, l will spend half of rny rnoney and tirne in Greece just to be with thern."

For sorne wornen transnationalisrn was experienced in terms of rnotherhood, and for sorne of them, this is still the case. Sorne wornen sent their children back to Greece to live under the supervision of grandparents and other relatives. Panagiota mentions:

"1 remember when 1 first came; every woman had sent her baby back

to Greece, to grow up with the grandparents. It was easier this way

because you could work for hours, you knew your chiId was taken

care by your people, not some stranger, and would be a native Greek

speaker. But then 1 saw this friend of mine and she told me 'do not

send your child! Are you crazy? It is the worst pain separating a

mother from her child.' So 1 called a relative to baby-sit for me." Acccording to P. Hondagneu-Sotelo many families send their children back to their country of origin, so that they will get to know the relatives, come to appreciate its traditions, becorne fluent in the

97 language of their parents and appreciate the importance of familial links.83 Such is the case of Ioulia:

"1 had no choice. 1 had to work at a donut store and there was no

time for taking care of my child. So 1 figured that it would be better if

at least, my mother took care of it. Then 1 sent my second child too.

They came back when they were 13 and 7 respective1y. 1 think that

this is the reason why they kept their 'Greekness'. Especially their

Greek is fluent."

Eugenia left her four-year oid daughter with her mother before migrating to Canada. She considers it the most tragic memory of her departure:

"1 left my daughter to my mother. She was four years old. At least 1

was somewhat relieved by the thought that she was growing up with

my own mother. With the love that 1 would give her, if not more. But 1

had put it as a condition on my passport when 1 came. So two years

later, 1 was able to bring her to Canada."

Despo also left her son with his grandparents for a few years, until she and her husband made sorne money to sustain a family.

"1 sent my son back and 1 remember when we brought him to Canada

he was the smartest young boy. 1 remember he was four years old

and he could sing Greek songs and they would ask him at school to

narrate Greek faitytaIes, or to tell them the news about the coup

d'état of 1968. And he was only four but he knew it."

Some other women enforced the migration of female members from Greece, especially mothers and sisters, to assist them du ring pregnancy or for the upbringing of their children. Eieni narrates:.

&3 Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gender and US Immigration: Contemporary Trends, Berkeley 1999, p.254.

98 "When 1 was pregnant, 1 could barely do anything, so 1 asked my

sister from Greece to come here for a year and help me with

everything. Then she wanted to stay but 1 did not let her, it was

pointless."

Marina and Foteini brought their mothers-in-law respectively.

Marina: "1 was working for hours so we brought one of the

grandmothers to keep my son and daughter for a few years."

Foteini: "1 tried to take care of my son by myself but it was very hard.

Besides we were used from Greece where you would get the

assistance from mothers, sisters cousins. So 1 brought my mother-in

law for three years to help me with the child."

Nowadays, another phenomenon appears more frequently, that of sons or daughters of immigrants married to Greeks and living in

Greece with them. Lela's son, Antonia's, and Myrto's daughters are such cases. Antonia comments.

"My daughter went to Greece for vacation and she met someone

there, they got married and now she lives there. She has two

children. So 1 am thinking that 1 have no purpose being here. 1 want

to move to Greece as weil. It is my country afterall!" AIl women interviewed agreed that their wish is to move back to

Greece and live there for the rest of their lives. However they unanimously agree that their desire is unattainable since their children live in Montreal. Without one exception they all believe that they have to live next to their children forever and express feelings of guilt because they left their own parents to migrate, or feelings of pride because they think that Greek women are different than the

99 'Others' since they are doser to the family and more devoted and responsible towards their children.

Most women have resorted to the idea of combining both worlds by sharing their time equally between Greece and Canada. Out of the women interviewed, Panagiota, Lela, Koula, Maria, Despo and Antonia spend about six months in Greece and six months in Canada.

P~agiota and Lela mentioned:

Panagiota:"1 spend at least six months per year in Greece. 1 like it

more there. This is my country and this is where my family is.

Besides 1 never reaIly liked it here, 1 never really got used to it."

Lela: "1 spend more time in Greece than 1 do here. 1 have aIl my

female relatives and aIl my friends since then, before 1 left. So we

enjoy our time, and life there is much calmer than here. My dream is

to settle in Greece permanently." Familial ties do not only entail the movement of people between borders and between the two countries. The transformation of the traditional role and function of family in the context of

'transnationalism' appears also in terms of financial issues shared and dealt equally by all members of the family. The financial assistance to family members helps to enforce the stability of familial relations and overlap the 'danger' of separation, distance and discontinuity. It is a way to mobilize all members of the family to plead allegiance to their familial core, to demonstrate an undeniable unity.84 Despite the fact that women were never attributed the role of

84 Cecile Dauphin, Pierrette Lebrun Pezerat, Danielle Poublan, Ces Bonnes Lettres: Une Correspondance Familiale au XIX siecle, Editions Albin Michel, Paris 1995, p.161

100 economic actors, it appears that they have taken such initiatives. Zoe comments:

"Why do you think that the Greek state pushed us to leave? Tell me,

wbich one of a11 the immigrants here has not spent at least 10$ for bis

countty? 1 am here for 40 years and 1 have managed to send money to

my family, to build a house, to buy an apartment. And imagine that 1 left

Greece when 1 was only 15. Yet this fire inside me never left. In my mind

1 have to a1ways help, a1ways send money and stuff to my relatives

behind." For Eleni, sending products or money to Greece almost had a negative perception.

"1 went to Greece that summer, and 1 do not even remember how much

money 1 had spent to buy them clothes and shoes and stuff. 1 went to the

second-hand store and bought about two suitcases full. And then when 1

went to Greece 1 went to my sister's house and she asked me to help her

clean the attie. There, to my big surprise 1 found a11 the c10thes that me

and my aunts from Toronto had sent her over the years. Eaten by rats!

And 1 figured at that moment that their clothes in Greece were even

better and more expensive than ours. 1 do not know, sometimes we have

this perception that Greece is a still suffering from the Nazi's, when the

American Aid would come and people would go crazy. And my cousin

told me 'what do you think, you are like the rich Americans who come

and bring us Aid?' So 1 got so embarrassed and ever since, 1 only send

remittances." One might wonder what are the reasons enabling the spread of transnational phenomena. Technological advances have allowed an easier and faster communication and movement. Steamships, airplanes, post-offices, telephone and in today's terms internet, are all

101 ways of communicating and keeping links.85 Also, the question cannot

be examined without mentioning economic factors, such as the

dependency of small-scale economies to more powerful ones,86 the

political initiatives adapted in order to attract immigrant labor,87 and

in sorne cases the legislation concerning immigrant population.

(allowing double citizenship, or reunion of immigrant families,

permitting practice of religion and educational institutions for second

generation children )88

While interviewing women at the factory, 1 noticed that most of

them had in front of them printed photocopies from magazines and

WebPages with the latest news on a Greek show they watched on

satellite Greek television. The program, which is a singing talent show,

for the first time includes among its 'players' children of second

generation immigrants from Montreal and New York. Women are the

most devoted fans of this show, claiming to visit the website daily and

to even vote over the phone for their favorite singer. They unanimously

c1aimed that for years they have paid about two hundred dollars

monthly to get all the channels of the satellite Greek television.

Media is one of the most frequent means to explore

transnational phenomena. Television, newspapers, magazines and the

Internet have promoted the idea of crossing the border and

85 , Ellis Island History: Passage A cross the Atlantic, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, 2002, d.v.19/06/02 86 Saskia Sassen, Global City, Princeton University Press, 2000, p.19 87 Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller, Cristina Szanton Blanc, Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Post Colonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-States, Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam 1994, [printed in USA], p.1l4-115 88 Saskia Sassen, Guests andAliens, New York: New Press, 1999, p.149

102 establishing transnational, cultural links between the country of origin and the host country. In many cases immigrant women and their children watch the Greek news, films, shows and documentaries, listen to the Greek radio (through stations broadcasting from Montreal or via the Internet) and read Greek newspapers and magazines imported in certain stores.

Eugenia remembers:

"1 remember when 1 first came, sorne wornan in the factory told me

that here in Montreal they bring both 'Romantzo' and 'Domino'

(magazines). My heart went back to its place! 1 realized at this point

that 1 am not in xenitia (foreign land). 1 would order thern both at the

Greek store, and every Sunday it was my ritual, to buy my magazines

and a pack of cigarettes. ft was as if 1 never left." Eleni mentions:

"1 bought the satellite because 1 want to know exactly what is

happening. And my children willlearn the language too. 1 have an

uncle who left when he was a child and he was very assimilated, you

know. Sa he bought the satellite and now he rernembers his Greek

and he oruy talks about Greek news. 1 told him 'You became a Greek

again.' Despo jokes about the hours she spends watching Greek

television:

"Especially in the weekends that 1 do not work? You cannot imagine!

1 watch it for hours. Ta hear clear Greek, to find out what is going on.

1 do not think that we are missing anything here, we really are in

Greece. Every Sunday, how do you call it here? 1 veg-up with

television. (laughter)"

103 Eleni is particularly active with the internet. Through the internet she looks for the genealogies of Greeks throughout the world and she provides to other 'vi sitors' the necessary information.

"1 use internet and 1 think 1 have reconstructed my own family. Vou

cannot imagine how many emails 1 get from my relatives dispersed

around the world. 1 have found ail my cousins in Australia, the

United States and Germany. And 1 talk to the relatives in Greece via

the Internet everyday. It is amazing what technology can do."

For most women who are not familiar with the internet, telephone remains their link to their Greek relatives, for most of them at a weekly basis. They all comment that when they first arrived in

Montreal connection fees to Greece where extremely expensive and they had to work for weeks to paya phone calI to their relatives. With the better rates and the international calling cards nowadays they admit talking to their relatives on the phone at least once every week.

Finally, sorne women participate in the cultural associations of their villages based in Greece. Olympia, as a member of the association organizes cultural events dealing with the immigrant experiences. Zoe participates actively in her village's association where she organizes dances and festivities every summer that she is in

Greece. Eleni is the secretary of the Laconian Association planning the building of a hospital for eIder people in Greece. Olympia, Fani and Eleni write articles for publication at the Greek-based newspapers 'Kremastiotika Nea' and 'Mani'.

Families living between Greece and Canada, children growing up under the supervision of their grandparents in Greece, women

104 following their older sisters in their migratory path, remittances, clothes and other products traveling across borders, television shows monopolizing the discussions of immigrant women in factories, all these are aspects of a transnational space created between Greece and Canada. Women as transmigrants maintain strong ties and networks which enable them to define themselves as Greeks, to sustain the bonds with their past and to create new links for their present and future.

105 VIII. Conclusion

The initial incentive of this thesis could be summarized to what

Freda Hawkins, at the introduction of this thesis, called the

'feminization of migration studies'. Having lived around and with immigrant women and having talked to them about their experiences led me to believe that there was a more profound stratum in the migratmy paths, than the myth of the male breadwinner. Seeking as

P.Sotelo phrased it, a 'gender-sensitive' answer to such assumptions 1 found oral histmy to be an approach and a tool, to what these women really had to 'say'.

Oral history with a sense (or illusion) of immediacy has allowed the investigation into an unattainable past, a version of the truth which would give women the lead role. 1 use the notion of memory analyzed as the cause and in the meantime the effect behind women's roles, identities and transnational acts. Transnationalism, the term describing the simultaneous engagement of individuals in activities spanning national borders is an important theory for the understanding of the relationship between gender and migration. 1 explore the literature of migration studies, with their long history of male dominance, to provide an answer for the negligence and absence of women in migration scholarship.

The interviews took place within the course of a year and entail

'conversations' with twenty six Greek immigrant women who live in

Montreal. My role as a Greek woman with familial and social ties to

106 most of them is acknowledged as a privileged position. It offered me an access to the world, thoughts and ideologies, the hou ses and factories of these women in Montreal. AU of them expressed their dissatisfaction for the lack of interest towards women immigrants, and especially Greek.

The interviews are analyzed under three thematics. In the first part 1 explore the memories of women before migrating to Montreal.

The conditions they lived in when in Greece, their memories of the family and of school, the long hours of work in the fields or as seamstresses set the background for their decision to migrate. Their statu s, decisions, roles and identities are heavily influenced by the world they experienced before migrating.

The decision to migrate is followed by a long and for many of them, fearful joumey, usually by boat. Feelings of hope for a better future, indignation for an arranged marriage , curiosity for the new land collide with the feeling of fear for the unknown. Through kin and village ties, most of them tried to overcome the difficulties of a newly arrived immigrant woman in Montreal. Settling in areas inhabited by

Greeks, working in textile industries, factories and households, they tried ta foster their children, to leam the language, entertain themselves and become active in the communities. Each story accentuates different aspects of the everyday life and womanhood among Greek immigrants to Montreal.

What is revealed from the experiences and practices of women immigrants is the emergence of an amalgamated gendered identity,

107 demonstrative of the transition between the two worlds; Greece and

Canada. Defining their role and identity in different ways they provide accounts of the patriarchal structure of the Greek family and its preconceived notions of womanhood. Pre-migratory elements of their identities were imported to their new home and were solidified and maintained over the course of their stay in Montreal. Other elements which they encountered in the host society were gradually incorporated and integrated, to provide a new hybrid notion, conception and identity about gender.

Migration brought another change in the lives of Greek women.

Through memories, communications, media, associations and extended familial ties, women became active in a new transnational ground which overlapped national borders. The bipolar perception of migration as an abrupt rupture, an inevitable void between the past and the present, host and receiving country was problematic and inadequate to explain the roles, identities, actions and practices of transmigrant women. Greek women in Montreal brought their younger sisters and brothers to live with them and work, sent their children to live with their grandparents, supported their nuc1ear households by sending remittances and products, participate in organizations and associations, watch Greek television and listen to the Greek radio, discuss with relatives via the internet.

Transnationalism is a strong element of their roles and their identities.

108 The conclusions that can be drawn from this thesis include the

historiographieal and method010gieal as well as the practieal

responses generating from the interviews. In terms of method010gy what becomes apparent in this paper is the importance of oral history

and oral accounts for historical purposes. Oral history is a to01 that

can al10w the incorporation of negiected social members, such as women, into scholarship. In the meantime it provides knowledge on

the everydayness, the ideologies, mentalities and cultures of the

individuals. Moreover, oral history evokes questions about the role of

the interviewer and the interviewee, their interactions, the quality, use

and interpretation of testimonies, the access to a certain group and

the moral and ethieal dilemmas it entails. For this paper, oral history offers an important and irreplaceable insight to the world of Greek women immigrants.

Transnationalism is another analytieal tool contributing an important degree of understanding to the identities, practiees and ideologies of women across borders. As a theory it promotes a notion of immigration whieh does not seek answers behind the rigid Hnes of nationality, ethnie community and bip01ar migration.

Transnationalism also offers a vital language kit for understanding, describing, interpreting and exploring the transformed roIes, identities and perceptions of nation, gender, community, hybridity and diaspora.

Furthermore historiography concerning the role of gender in migration studies deserves to be analyzed and redefined. Gendering or

109 feminizing migration is not simply about attending or adding woman as a variable of the male dominated migration phenomena. lt is necessary to look beyond economic, social and political models that marginalize or eliminate the role and contribution of women in migratory movements. As Floya Anthias argues, "whilst nationalism as Benedict Anderson notes, constructs imagined communities with a sense of belonging, it also requires an 'other' from which it can imagine itself to be separate. The migrant 'other' is gendered as well as racialized and classed. "89

Women are active participants in the social interactions, economic process and political transformations of both their host country and their country of origin. It is important to incorporate women as active participants and agents of the migration process. It is also necessary to understand the differences among them in terms of age, ethnic background, religion, status, yet provide a gender- sensitive and feminized narrative of migration. It is essential to reverse and defy stereotypes and preconceived notions of women immigrant as id le victims of patriarchal societies, stagnant observers of the economic, political and social lives of their host countries and countries of origin, illiterate mothers of many children with strong and exclusive bonds to the female 'realm' of their household.

The conclusions that can be drawn from the interviews are multiple. Initially, what becomes evident is that the stereotypical

89 Floya Anthias and Gabriella Lazaridis, Gender and Migration in Southem Europe, Oxford 2000, p24.

110 conception of the Southem European and particularly Greek women immigrants are far from being true. The effort to feminize migration rests primarily on the understanding of the inadequacy, reductionism and partiality of the conceptions about gender and migration. Greek women speak up, to demonstrate that they have always been active, interested, motivated, agitated and involved in decision-making, actions and practices, transnational bondages, emancipatory efforts in the context of migration.

Gender is a significant component of ethnic landscapes, but most importantly, women are active agents of the migratory processes. It is important to acknowledge the different and heterogeneous contexts, backgrounds and experiences of women and understand that the case of Greek women immigrants is only one version, one scene of the plot narrating women's role in migration. My focus on Greek immigrants could be explained by my own ties and by the irksome realization that there are almost no studies about them.

However, far from restrictive, my aspiration is to provide an account of the gender experience of migration in a way that nationality is not the most important denominator of the immigrant status. Women of every nationality can provide similar accounts, memories, jokes and narratives about their migratory experiences.

The insight into women's version of migration is based on an analysis and a look back at their past, at their status before becoming migrants. This brings us to the conclusion that it is of major importance to explore migration, not simply after it occurs. Prejudices

111 and discriminatory positioning towards women can be avoided when

100king back to their world before migrating. Wholistic characterizations such as 'patriarchal oppression' 'victimization of womanhood' are neither adequate nor completely accurate. It is central to look beyond such simplistic models, in order to understand who the se women were before they arrived.

Meanwhile it is dear that an analysis of the memories, the everyday life, the small scale issues, the mentalities and ideologies of women can be rather significant and fruitful for migration studies.

Instead of insisting on statistics, quantitative data, economic models and analyses, the interest towards small scale events, individual accounts and personal memoirs can reveal a more diversified, profound and interesting narrative on the immigration of women.

Finally the application of more recent theories, such as theories of diasporas, hybridism and Transnationalism may offer an alternative way in approaching gender in migration. It is of fundamental importance to understand the need for new tools and languages in order to de scribe shifting and transformed identities, roles, actions and practices. Listening doser to the voices of women and understanding their actions and identities under the spectrum of theories such as Transnationalism may help us to better comprehend and incorporate women into migration studies.

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AlI graphs are part of a study on Greek Diaspora conducted by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministry of Foreign Affairs/ General Secretariat ofGreek Diaspora, Greek Diaspora, File: Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Athens 1995

Greek Canadians

45000 40000 I------j 0 Men 35000 oWomen 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 Born ln Aquired Other Canada Canadian Citizenship

Percentage of Greeks Marrying Other Greeks

63.4 80 50 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Canada U.S.A. Australia

124 Percentage of Greek Migrants Retuming to Greece

57.1 57.1 60 42.5 50 40 30 20 10

o~------~------~------~ Canada U.S.A. Australia

Sectors of Economie Activity

Primary Sector 8 1 o Male Industries o Female Construction u Transportation, Telecommunication :?

Commerce 1 Economies, Insurance, Real Estate ~ Govemment Employee :r other

o 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000

125