The Agricultural Settlement of Refugees: A Source of Productive Work and Stability in Greece, 1923-1930

Abstract

history. Overall, the Greek government succeeded in incorporating these ref? ugees economically and politically into the extant population. This paper ex? plores rural refugee settlement as a productive force on the domestic economy and examines its impact on the rural markets of Greece. It also investigates how a poor, war-weary country with a population barely over five million provided land and employment in a largely successful effort to integrate al? most six hundred thousand refugees into its agricultural labor market. The author further evaluates how Greece preempted the potential radicalization of the refugee vote through reform, repression, and the involvement of refugees in the hierarchical Greek political system.