Narratives of Place, Culture and Identity : Second-Generation Greek-Americans Return 'Home'

Abstract

Christou explores the phenomenon of 'return migration' in Greece through the settlement and identification processes of second-generation Greek-American returning migrants. She examines the meanings attached to the experience of return migration. The concepts of 'home' and 'belonging' figure prominently in the return migratory project which entails relocation and displacement as well as adjustment and alienation of bodies and selves. Furthermore, Christou considers the multiple interactions (social, cultural, political) between the place of origin and the place of destination; network ties; historical and global forces in the shaping of return migrant behaviour; and expressions of identity. The human geography of return migration extends beyond geographic movement into a diasporic journey involving (re)constructions of homeness and belongingness in the ancestral homeland.

Christoe onderzoekt in haar proefschrift Narratives of Place, Culture and Identity. Second-Generation Greek-Americans Return 'Home' de retourmigratie van Griekse-Amerikanen. Ze kijkt naar hoe deze migratie beleeft wordt door de migranten. Het concept 'thuis' en 'behoren bij' nemen in prominente plek in de belevingswereld van deze migranten in, evenals vervreemding en aanpassingsproblemen. Christou kijkt verder naar de interactie tussen de plaats van herkomst en de plaats van bestemming; netwerkverbanden, historische en wereldwijde invloeden op het gedrag van de migranten; en hoe deze migranten hun identiteit uiten.