Suchergebnisse

Just as masculinity is crucial in the construction of nationhood, masculinity is also significant in the making and unmaking of transnational communities. This article focuses on how black African men negotiate and perform respectable masculinity in transnational settings, such as the workplace, community, and family. Moving away from conceptualizations of black transnational forms of masculinities as in perpetual crisis and drawing on qualitative data collected from the members of the new African diaspora in London, the article explores the diverse ways notions of masculinity and gender identities are being challenged, reaffirmed, and reconfigured. The article argues that men experience a loss of status as breadwinners and a rupture of their sense of masculine identity in the reconstruction of life in the diaspora. Conditions in the hostland, in particular, women's breadwinner status and the changing gender relations, threaten men's "hegemonic masculinity" and consequently force men to negotiate respectable forms of masculinity.

Abstract
This paper draws on a larger oral history project entitled 'Gendered Histories of Resilience and Resistance: East European Women's Narratives of Mobility and Survival', a narrative ethnography of Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Polish immigrant women living in Greece. The paper explores intergenerational cultural knowledge transfer and adaptation in a context of crisis with an analysis contextualised within the current crisis in Greece. We consider here the degree of uncertainty and the emotional challenges and constraints, but consider also the creativity and agency that participants display. Following on from that we aim to unravel the impact of 'family and cultural values' on migrants' everyday lives in the diaspora.

AbstractBased on in‐depth narrative interviews with 64 second‐generation Greek‐Germans and Greek‐Americans who have "returned" to Greece, this article explores intersections between return, transnationalism and integration. Having grown up with a strong Greek identity in the diaspora, second‐generation "returnees" move to Greece mainly for idealistic, lifestyle and life‐stage reasons. However, most find living in Greece long‐term a challenging experience: they remark on the corruption and chaos of Greek life, and are surprised at the high level of xenophobia in Greek society, not only towards foreign immigrants but also towards themselves as "hyphenated Greeks". The "return" to Greece provokes new "reverse" transnational links back to their birth country, where they still need to keep in touch with relatives and friends, including caring obligations towards parents who remain abroad. Some contemplate another "return", back to the US or Germany.
Policy Implications


Policymakers responsible for integration should not assume that the second generation has no connections with its parents' country of origin.

In the diasporic home country (in this case Greece), more effort should be made to facilitate the reintegration of the second generation returning 'home' and to break down discrimination towards hyphenated Greeks.

Greek policymakers should pay heed to homecoming second‐generation Greeks in order to benefit from their bicultural insights into how Greek society can be improved, especially as regards efficient public services, transparent employment opportunities, better environment management, gender equality, and the elimination of racism and discrimination.

AbstractThis article looks at the 'return' migration of second‐generation Greek Americans to their parents' homeland, Greece. It is based on interviews with, and written accounts supplied by, 40 participants in the research, all now living in the Athens region. The article addresses two main sets of questions. First, why do they relocate to Greece, what are they looking for, and how do they cope with difficulties and disappointments? Second, and more specifically, how do they react to the fact that Greece is no longer a homogenous hellenistic society, but has become in recent years a de facto multicultural one due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families? Three hypotheses are proposed for this inter‐migrant encounter: returnees, shocked by the 'new immigration', view it negatively as upsetting the 'pure Greek' homeland they had hoped to find; returnees are more sympathetic because of their own families' history as immigrants in multicultural America; and returnees differentiate themselves as 'good' migrants from Greece's immigrants who are constructed as 'bad' migrants. Evidence from the migrants' testimonies is found to support all three hypotheses; however, there is more support for the second one. In addition, a fourth outcome was voiced: that of discrimination against Greek Americans who are made to feel, in certain circumstances, outsiders by the 'true' Greeks. Suggestions are made for further comparative research.

AbstractDrawing on a wider study of 90 second‐generation Greeks and Greek Cypriots who have relocated to their ancestral homeland, in this article we focus on the significance of childhood visits to the homeland. Freedom – how children were allowed to roam free and stay up late – is the key trope of such memories, in contrast with the strict spatio‐temporal parenting they received in the host country. Different, sometimes less pleasant memories, however, emerge when the visits took place during later, teenage years. We explore the connections between childhood visits and adult relocation. Adult returnees find that settlement in the homeland produces a new set of challenges and reactions that differ markedly from childhood experiences and memories. They engage a second narrative trope, nostalgia, reflecting on the loss of the 'authentic' nature of the homeland and its customs and values. Instead, they highlight the materialism and xenophobia of Greek and Cypriot society nowadays. However, they see the 'homeland' as a safer place in which to raise their own children.

We examine the comparative "return" experiences of second-generation Greek-Americans and British-born Greek Cypriots who have relocated to their respective parental homelands of Greece and Cyprus. Sixty individuals, born in the United States or the United Kingdom yet now living in Greece or Cyprus, were interviewed and detailed life narratives recorded. We find both similarities and differences between the two groups. While the broad narrative themes "explaining" their returns are similar a search for a "place to belong" in the ancestral homeland linked to what is, or was, perceived to be a more relaxed and genuine way of life—the post-return outcomes vary. In Greece there is disappointment, even profound disillusionment, whereas in Cyprus the return is generally viewed with satisfaction. For Greek-Americans, negative experiences include difficulty in accessing employment, frustration with bureaucracy and a culture of corruption, struggles with the chaos and stress of life in Athens, and pessimism about the future for their children in Greece. As a result, some Greek-Americans contemplate a second return, back to the United States. For the returnee British Cypriots, these problems are far less evident; they generally rationalize their relocation to Cyprus as the "right decision," both for themselves and for their children. Greek-Americans tend to withdraw into a social circle of their own kind, whereas British-born returnee Cypriots adopt a more cosmopolitan or "third-space" cultural identity related, arguably, to the small scale and intimate spaces of social exchange in an island setting, and to the colonial and postcolonial history of Cyprus and its diaspora.