NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. ® UMI 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 © Margarita Dounia 2004 Library and Bibliothèque et 1+1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 0-494-06500-1 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 0-494-06500-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell th es es le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. ln compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. ••• Canada Contents 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