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Greek Immigration Sociology

Satisfactory Essays

Mass immigration from Greece began in the 1890s and went through to the 1920s. Four hundred thousand Greek people immigrated to the United States. At the time of this mass immigration Greece was an agricultural country, a lot of people were peasants, and had very small plots of land throughout southern Greece and the islands. In the 19th century most people were barely making a living. Blight also became a problem as their grapes were destroyed and current production of food went down. The solution to this was to immigrate to the United States. Once in America Greeks relayed heavily on fellow Greeks immigrants to find jobs and survive because they didn't know the language or how things worked in America. New York was the first stop for many …show more content…

Most of the Greek immigrants were mostly looking for jobs that not only gave them money but a job that had a level of comfort. This led thousands of Greeks into opening their own businesses. Although many Greeks assimilated to the American culture many of them feared if they Americanized and assimilate they would lose their Greek roots and identity. They did want to assimilate to American culture but they also wanted to retain their language and identity as Greek. The wall street crash of 1929 and the depression that followed affected Greek Americans as badly as it did all Americans. Thousands of Greek businesses closed, and thousand of Greek Americans lost their jobs leaving them dependent on soup kitchens. Although many Greeks left Greece because of the poor economy many Greek Americans decided to stay in the United States despite the economic problems. Despite these hardships Greek Americans made it through and went on to live in multiethnic communities where a connection formed between other ethnic groups (Italians, Polish, Irish etc). America gave opportunities to these immigrants that didn't exist in the old

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