A Century of Asia Minor Refugees in Greece

Abstract This book is a comparative—intergenerational and interregional—history of Asia Minor memories and identities of forced displacement that examines the multilayered relationship between contemporary attitudes and refugee past. Marking the centenary of the Asia Minor population transfer in the context of Greece’s contemporary migration crisis, the research questions that this book addresses are: how have memories of the 1922–24 forced displacement changed over time from one generation to the next? How do people with these memories and identities think about subsequent migration? Following a regional history approach and an oral history approach, this study draws upon literature from several disciplines and rests upon oral testimony. Specifically, it employs a methodology of collecting primary sources using oral testimonies (262 life history interviews) and archival evidence (five thousand oral testimonies) based on three regional case studies, namely the borderland island of Lesvos, Central Macedonia in northern Greece, and Attica. This book argues that refugee identity is a capacious and dynamic platform of ongoing understanding as well as a limited space of domination and competition. Elucidating the attitudes of refugee descendants and unfolding key patterns about the complex role of refugee memory and identity, it brings together the intersection of three interlocking elements: time (refugee generations), place (refugee locations), and subsequent migration (waves of other migrations). In short, A Century of Asia Minor Refugees in Greece sheds light on the convoluted relationship between contemporary attitudes and refugee past, providing a nuanced history of the 1922–24 memories and identities of forced displacement.