Immigration and Assimilation: the Greeks of Lowell
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tT Λ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to Dr. J. Oscar Alers for all his invaluable assistance throughout this study. With out his continuous suggestions, advice, comment, and la borious working over the manuscript, the present study would never have been completed. Dr. Seymour Leventman has also made many valuable sug gestions and comments. I am also deeply grateful to the forty respondents for their contribution. Special thanks go to the Reverend John Sarantos of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Transfiguration in Lowell, who gave much of his time and shared many of his immigration and experiences. assimilation: PREFACE Among modern nations the United States presents the Greeks a classic example of the problems and opportunities of immigration. The entire course of American his of Lowell tory has been shaped by successive waves of im migrants, representing diverse nationalities from the whole world. Almost every national group has taken its place in American culture. Thesis Upon settling in a strange land, the new immigrant faces several serious crises. He is legally and socially an alien. He embodies a cultural heritage that in cludes a different language, political tradition, val by ues and goals. He brings a strange style and standard of living. He expresses a temperament which allows Eleni Drakopoulou him to accept change or reject it. The life of the new Lawyer, Member of immigrant is precarious. Athens Bar Association In view of this situation certain practical and theo retical factors intervene concerning his adjustment. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the problem of assimilation with respect to a particular national group and place: the Greek minority in Lowell, Massachusetts. The thesis employs, as a major dependent variable, the degree of assimilation. Important independent variables include: (1) sex of the immigrant, (2) reasons for emigration, (3) ties with the original country, (4) length and intention of stay in the United States, (5) type of migration, and (6) regional and occupational mobility. The study is based in part on a representative sam ple of native-born Greeks, obtained from the mem bership lists of the Greek Orthodox Church. Some forty cases, representative of four hundred mem In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the bers, are utilized in the study. Degree of Master of Arts, 1970 Other significant concerns of the thesis include Boston College a description of Greek immigrant patterns in the United States and an evaluation of previous defi nitions of assimilation. I. general characteristics of immigration Throughout the whole history of mankind,migration has been an even recurring phenomenon. The eco nomic causes of immigration are the earliest and immigration and assimilation: the Greeks of Lowell by far the most important. They arise in connection TABLE 1. Immigrants by Country of Origin: 1820-1963 with man’s efforts to make his living, and concern All countries 42,702,328 Portugal 843,867 all interests which are connected with his productive Spain 188,974 efforts. Europe 34,896,219 Sweden 1,255,296 According to the United States Bureau of Immigra USSR 3,344,998 Austria and Hungary 4,280,863 Yugoslavia 69,834 tion, an immigrant is «an alien officially admitted into Belgium 191,981 the United States whose last permanent residence Czechoslovakia 129,704 Asia 1,160,758 was in some foreign country and who comes with Denmark 354,331 China 411,585 the declared intention of residing permanently.» Finland 28,358 Japan 338,087 France 698,188 America 6,218,831 Fairchild defines immigration as follows: Germany 6,798,313 Canada and Immigration is a movement of people, individually or in Great Britain 3,844,058 Newfoundland 3,697,649 families, acting on their own personal initiative and responsi Greece 499,465 Mexico 1,291,922 bility... passing from one well-developed country (usually old Ireland 4,693,009 West Indies 684,175 and thickly settled) to another well-developed country (usually Italy 5,017,625 Africa 53,186 new and sparsely populated) where living conditions are more Netherlands 338,722 Australia and favorable with the intention of residing permanently.1 Norway 843,867 New Zealand 84,468 Poland 451,010 Pacific Islands 22,332 The definition found in the Dictionary of Sociolo Source: US Bureau of the Census, «Statistical Abstract of the United gy generally follows Fairchild’s definition with few States», 1964, p. 94. major distinctions: it stresses the voluntary charac ter of immigration and it adds the condition of cross The year 1882 represents a turning point in the ing a political boundary, if it is to be «true immigra history of American immigration. It marked the be tion.»2 The major characteristics of immigration then ginning of the large-scale movement of migrants are: (a) a peaceful movement of peoples, individuals from Southern and Eastern Europe. Included in the of groups, from one country to another; (b) the move so-called new migration (as opposed to the «Old» ment is voluntary.3 migration from England, Germany, Scandinavia, The total number of immigrants admitted to the France, Holland, etc.) were the Italians, Poles, Jews, United States throughout its history is not known. In Greeks, Portuguese, Russians, and other Slavs. 1820 the government began to keep a record of im migration, but until 1907 the enumerations suffered History of Greek Immigration from Serious limitations. Accordingly only a rough approximation of total immigration to the country Immigration to the United States from Greece was can be gained from federal sources. These data are chiefly a product of the late nineteenth and early twen presented in Table 1. tieth centuries. Theexact number of Greeks who came Until the depression years of the 1890’s the volume to the United States will never be known. The failure of immigration generally increased each decade. Im of the Greek government to keep accurate records migration remained high until the passage of re and the difficulties of defining a «Greek» account strictive legislation in the 1920’s which set ceilings for most of the confusion. upon the number of migrants to be admitted from The question of who is a «Greek» has become a each nation. In the period from 1783 to 1830 the complex one and the answers range from the strict white population of the United States included few legalistic definitions of citizenship to such broad Germans and Dutch, and even fewer French Cana definitions as that of prime minister Venizelos given dians, Belgians, Swiss, Mexicans, and Swedes. at the Versailles Peace Conference. According to The period from 1830 to 1882 was marked by a his definition «A Greek is a person who wants to be a great increase in immigration. The rapid industri Greek, feels he is a Greek and says he is a Greek.»4 alization created major demands for unskilled labor So nationality, according to the Greeks, is eternal: to build canals, railroads and roads, to work in fac it cannot be transferred or obliterated. The United tories and carry on many non-mechanized tasks. States, on the other hand, accepts the country of a 1. Henry Pratt Fairchild, Immigration (The Macmillan Co., man’s birth as the criterion of nationality. New York, 1925, rev. ed.), p. 30. Immigration from Greece was most intense between 2. Henry Pratt Fairchild, ed., Dictionary of Sociology (New 1905 and 1915 with the peak year being 1907, when York: Philosophical Library, 1944), p. 150. 36,580 persons were recorded as immigrants from 3. This point needs additional qualifications. Although most immigration is voluntary, there are instances, especially during Greece, i.e., about 1.5 percent of the total pop- the period under consideration, when people were compelled to leave their homelands: the Jewish immigrant of the thirties 4. George Vournas, as quoted in «Greeks in America,» and the political refugees of permanent settlement in the im Congressional Record; Proceedings and Debates of the 86th porting country. Congress, 2nd Session, p. A 137. 57 Επιθεώρησις Κοινωνικών Έρεννών a και β τρίμηνον 1974 ulation (2,631,950) of Greece for the same year.1 values and the difference of the circumstances in This exodus was precipitated by the decline of cur Greece and America. rants, the principal export crop. Changes in the com Representatives of relatives and friends in the mercial policies of France and Russia, the big cur United States also helped swell the immigration tide. rant customers, dealt a severe blow to the economy. Once an immigrant reached his destination, he wrote Matters became still more complicated because of his parents immediately, within a few more days he the Balkan wars and after them. The response of followed up this initial letter with a small sum of mo many Greeks to this depressed state of affairs was ney borrowed without any reference to work or work emigration. ing conditions. Reasons for Emigration This had a chain reaction. It persuaded others to leave for America in the hope that they, too, would obtain ready money to forward to their families.3 Although the economic hardship has been express ed as «push» and employment or improving eco nomic conditions as «pull» factors, there are some 3. Religious Factors other reasons that gave rise to the motivation for emigration. This reason is due to the conflict between Chris tianity and Islam, especially to the immigrants from 1. Economic reasons Turkey. To accept Islam would end the troubles and persecutions of Christians. Like the persecuted Pu The great exodus from Greece, as we mentioned ritans of England, the Huguenots of France, the vic before, was a result of the economic crisis brought tims of oppression in Germany and other lands, about by the complete failure of the currant crop and the Greek Christian young man sought shelter, the Balkan wars.