“Moving from one country to another is no longer a doomsday decision,” says Ioanna Laliotou, history and social anthropology professor in the Thessaly University in Volos and author of the book “Transatlantic Subjects: Acts of Migration and Cultures of Transnationalism between Greece and America” gave an interview for Maria Spassova.

Can we speak of mass scale return of Greek Americans back to Greece?

This is a very interesting question, which science has not yet researched in a way it deserves and studying this topic is imminent. Ever since the beginning of the 20^th century it is a fact that the emigrant wave is very active back towards the home country. Unfortunately this movement back to Greece has not been recorded neither in American nor in Greek archives. Besides that, many people come back in order to leave again for America in few years. Independently of whether they have planned it or not. Emigration is such a psychological act, which each emigrant plans it to a certain extent. Maybe during the 20’s one decides to come back to Greece but 5 years later he changes his mind and leaves again for the US. In all cases this movement back to the home country exists. Greeks do come back, some of them stay and others leave again. It is interesting that one of the first studies done about Greeks in America is about the ones who return. The study is done by a famous historian Theodoros Salutos. He was an emigrant himself, who during the 50’s becomes one of the first Fulbright scholarship winners. He returned back to Greece and made a series of interviews with emigrants from America who have returned back to Greece. After that he publishes his results in one very interesting book. He asked them why and when they have come back and for the reason. It came out that many of them return, in order to fix some property, administrative or legal cases. Others, return for family reasons – to get married, to marry their sisters, to take their brother away with them. Some of the ones who have returned decide to stay and others leave. Obviously emigration is a big bargain with oneself. What Salutos explains is the problem of the double identity, for which all surveyed talk about. At a point in the conversation, all of them say that they have felt like foreigners in America and this is why they have returned back to Greece. When they return, they are no longer the same as everybody else – they are different. As one of the surveyed says: “In America we are Greeks and in Greece we are Americans.”

When it comes to the second emigration wave, after the Second World War, we can also see many people coming back. The interesting thing in this “coming back” phenomenon is that it includes all emigrant layers – those who can settle down fast and make a career, and the ones who have failed. In other words, a person comes back because he did not succeed but also because he did succeed and is sure in himself that he can finance his life here in Greece. Many people return after their retirement. There is one phenomenon, which can be seen in the last 10 years – people around 50-55, spend 6 months in Greece and the rest in America. Usually, those are people in good financial standing and with a big family. It is hard for all of them to return to Greece and this is how they combine their lives there and here. During the last 15 years, we can notice another group of people, who comes back to Greece after they graduate from university. Years back, whoever graduated in the US, they usually found a job there and stayed. Now, at least for a significant period of time, a big part of that group returns to Greece.

How do you see this phenomenon developing in the future?