Self-Sufficiency out of Necessity: Refugee Self-Reliance Assistance in Interwar Greece

Abstract

This chapter presents the first international response to refugees led by the League of Nations through a case study of ethnic Greek refugees in Greece in the 1920s. It highlights the dominant self-reliance assistance practices undertaken at the time by the Greek Refugee Settlement Commission, created to assist the 1.5 million ethnic Greek refugees from Asia Minor forced to relocate to Greece between 1922 and 1924. The population exchange exemplifies the upholding of the post-First World War new ‘world order’, the creation of nation-states after the collapse and break-up of multi-ethnic European empires, and a corresponding attempt to return to the successful international economy of the pre-First World War world. This case study examines the ways refugee development assistance explicitly targeted state needs through agricultural production, and a larger economic motive of instrumentalizing refugees for both peace and labour through development. The broader work of the League of Nations High Commission for Refugees and the International Labour Organization at the time is also presented.