Aegean Islander Migration to the United Kingdom and Australia, 1815-1945: Emigration, Settlement, Community Building and Integration

Description

The study of Modern Greek migration to the Anglosphere has had a general trend towards the mass migrations that occurred during, and notably after World War II (1939-1945) and the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). While the post-war migrations are both important and significant, this presentation looks at the lesser researched migrations from the Ottoman Aegean islands to the West during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Two case studies in particular are at the centre of this research: the first being islanders from Chios that emigrated to London (1815-1900); and the second being islanders from Ikaria that settled in South Australia (1900-1945). This will uncover and contrast the different modes of emigration, settlement, community building and integration between the diverse political, social, economic and chronological contexts that the islander’s navigated. It is the hypothesis of this research that these migrations reflect the major political and economic world events of the period, the local ethnic and national identity tensions between the newly formed Greece and the Ottoman Empire, migration trends and policy in the Anglosphere, as well as the individual struggles, challenges and identity crises of early migrants. This will illustrate that these histories are inextricably linked and culminated in a significant early Aegean islander migration to the West.
As this is presentation is a Milestone, two chapters from the thesis will be particularly discussed: the first chapter’s exploration of Chiot emigration; and the fourth chapter’s discussion of Ikarian emigration. The thesis’ introductory and contextual content, including scope, positioning in existing literature, theoretical and analytical framework, methodology and structure, will also be established.

Period	5 Nov 2020
Event title	Flinders University CBGL & CHASS Spring Conference
Event type	Conference
Location	Adelaide, Australia, South AustraliaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	Regional