The historiography of the Greek Diaspora and migration in the twentieth century

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the literature on the Greek diaspora and migration during the twentieth century. In others words, this study attempts to offer a historiographical approach, focusing mainly on Greek-language literature and, in particular, on landmark works in Greek migration studies. Anyone attempting to write about the history of Greek migration is faced with a daunting task, considering that a series of individual concepts must be clarified and positioned in space and time. Migration in modern Greek history is not a phenomenon exclusive to the twentieth century; the permanent presence of Greeks in central Europe from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries incited the interest of a significant number of Greek historiographers in the twentieth century. In this context, for instance, the use during the twentieth century in the Greek-language literature of terms such as apodimos, apoikia, paroikia or repatriation reflects ruptures and continuities and illuminates the political changes in Greek society and the broader ideological shift in socials sciences. At the same time, the early post-junta period marked not only a systematic shift towards the study of the Greek diaspora and migration, but also a differentiation in its approach by entering into continuous dialogue with other disciplines. However, because diaspora and migration studies is now an interdisciplinary field, an overall analysis of it lies beyond the scope of this work.