Between and alone, more than , people came to the United States from Greece. Regardless of this increase, however,the number of Greek immigrants has never equaled the high reached during the first two decades of the 20th century. The majority of these most recent immigrants have settled in the New York City area. A Timeline of Greek Immigration Young Men Intending to Return In an attempt to survive the economic chaos in Greece at the turn of the century, many Greek families sent their sons to the United States.
Back to Timeline A Decline in Immigration While early immigrants and their families worked hard to establish themselves and create Greek American communities, the number of Greeks who immigrated to America dramatically decreased in the 's due to a shift in American immigration laws.
Greek Immigration to the United States:. Annual Average. Early migration Great Wave Last Exodus Closed Door Greeks were among the last of the Europeans to immigrate to America during this period. Greeks were among the last of the Europeans to immigrate to America during the Great Migration, and their numbers are small compared to neighboring nations of Southern Europe, like Italy, for example. Immigration and Naturalization Services data provide documentation that approximately , Greeks immigrated to the United States between and Their pattern of settlement shows that the majority settled on the East Coast, primarily in Florida and New York, and the industrial Midwest, in Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburg.
Greeks also formed enclaves on the West Coast as they worked in the construction, lumber, and mining industries. However, anti-immigration laws passed in the early twentieth century resulted of four decades of declining Greek immigration to the United States.
The first wave of mass Greek immigration coincides with the first phase of American Industrialization. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of Greeks arrived as a source of cheap labor, unlike previous Hellenic Diasporas in other parts of the world, starting in the 8 th Century BCE. In addition to the harsh demands and poor working conditions of manual labor, Greeks faced discrimination.
Racial prejudice marginalized and excluded Greeks from certain types of work, from use of public establishments, and harbored negative stereotypes of Greeks. In spite of such hostilities Greek workers were not deterred from participating in labor and political movements for social justice of all immigrants. Traditionally, Greek Americans have been concentrated in New York, which has been the preferred place of initial disembarkation and permanent settlement since the first wave of Greek mass immigration to the United States.
A unique characteristic of this wave is that Greeks unlike most other European groups immigrated twice on a massive scale to the U. Greeks inhabited the Astoria section of Queens, New York, during the second wave of mass immigration, and it has been considered the largest Hellenic settlement outside of Greece or Cyprus. The Greek American community of New York is undergoing a cyclical change, as the original post immigrants have achieved residential mobility and have moved out of Astoria.
Initially, Greek immigration to Chicago was primarily a male phenomenon. Young men and boys came to escape extreme poverty or, in the Turkish-occupied territory of Greece, to avoid being drafted into the Turkish army. The vast majority planned to return to the homeland with enough money to pay off family debts and provide marriage dowries for their daughters or sisters. And indeed, some 40 percent of the over , Greek immigrants to the United States had returned to their homeland by World War II, giving them one of the highest repatriation rates of immigrants in the United States.
It was not until the Great Depression in the s that Greek women, forced by economic constraints, sought employment outside the home. Greek immigrants settled initially in the central city in order to be near their place of work, especially the wholesale Fulton and South Water Streets markets, and to procure produce for their food peddling businesses.
By , Chicago had become home to approximately 30, first- and second-generation Greek Americans. Greektown on the Near West Side remained the focal point of Greek life in Chicago until it was displaced by the new University of Illinois at Chicago campus in the s. The old Greektown business community remained intact and had even expanded through gentrification. Despite coming from predominantly agrarian backgrounds, Greek immigrants moved quickly into mercantile activities.
One-third of the wholesale business in Chicago markets in South Water and Randolph Streets was conducted with Greek American merchants. This immigrant community worshiped overwhelmingly in the Greek Orthodox Church, beginning in in rented facilities in cooperation with Slavic Orthodox brethren.
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