Many Greek-Americans that I know, as well many members of my own family, emigrated from Greece to the United States between 1950 and 1974. It appears that Greeks have always looked beyond Greece and travelled abroad in search of opportunity and perhaps adventure. Like salmon, they generally prefer to return to their birthplace at the end of their life, but often spend most of their lives abroad. The Council of Greeks Abroad estimates that there are at least as many people who consider themselves “Greek” living outside Greece as there are in Greece.

The Greek tendency to wander, seek adventure and conquer new lands dates back to ancient times when Greeks founded settlements throughout the Mediterranean world. Traditionally the sea was the way to foreign lands and as a result Greeks presently control a majority of the world’s ocean-going merchant fleet.

Greek emigration to America began prior to the creation of the modern Greek state in the early 1800s. Greeks began arriving in the New World in the 1600s, but most of the immigration from Greece to the United States took place during two time periods in the 1900s.

The first wave of Greek immigration to the United States was from 1890 to 1924. A series of wars in the Balkans and Asia Minor caused large populations to be displaced, and more than a million refugees to settle in Greece. This caused additional strains on the meager economic and food resources in a nation already devastated by two decades of war. As a result, approximately 500,000 Greeks immigrated to the United States during this time period in search of economic opportunities that were not available at home.

The second wave of Greek immigration to the United States was from 1947 to 1974 when approximately 250,000 Greeks immigrated to the United States. The Second World War, the Axis occupation of Greece, and the civil war which followed, resulted in the total destruction and economic collapse of Greece. All industry and infrastructure had been destroyed. Additionally, after the war, Greece began to change from a traditional agricultural village society to a modern urban society. Labor that had been previously employed in traditional agricultural work became obsolete. As a result Greeks again sought opportunity elsewhere.

The legacy of war in the 1940s caused a period of political instability which culminated in military dictatorship or “junta” from 1967 to 1974. As the civil war had been fought in a relatively small community it caused lasting vendettas, and political and personal animosities which lingered politically and socially for decades. Many Greeks fled difficulties resulting from political conditions, repression and persecution.

In 1965 the United States passed the Immigration Act which ended the national quota system and gave preference to individuals wishing to immigrate to the United States to join family members already residing here. As most Greeks already had relatives living in the United States, the Immigration Act made the United States more easily accessible to Greeks seeking to emigrate. As a result immigration from Greece to the United States was especially high from 1965 to 1974 when almost 140,000 Greeks immigrated to the US.

After democracy was restored in Greece in the summer of 1974, Greece experienced a period of peace, prosperity and freedom that had never existed before. As a result the second phase of Greek emigration abruptly ended.

Unlike other immigrant groups, Greek immigrants throughout the 1900s generally did not immigrate as families. Greek immigration was generally males immigrating first and then either returning to Greece or establishing themselves in the United States and then being joined by their families. Also unlike other immigrants, Greek immigrants, or at least those who emigrated after World War II, were generally not eager to abandon their ethnicity and culture. In fact, staying true to their cultural and religious heritage became as important as assimilating into their new environment. Greeks saw no conflict between becoming productive members of American society and retaining and fostering their Hellenism. They established churches and schools that still exist and are preferred by Greek Americans for the education of their children.