‘We took a bath with the chickens’: memories of childhood visits to the homeland by second‐generation Greek and Greek Cypriot ‘returnees’

Abstract

Drawing 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.

‘Diverse Mobilities’: Second-Generation Greek-Germans Engage with the Homeland as Children and as Adults

“…Many participants also referred to the freedom they were given to play and roam with their cousins and other village children -unlike the tight rein they were kept on by their parents in Germany. To quote another paper specifically about childhood holiday visits, these were 'idyllic times and spaces' (King et al, 2009), and our evidence concurs with other studies of return holiday visits -for instance of Swiss-Italian children to Southern Italy (Wessendorf, 2007). Such visits took place mainly during the summer, sometimes with extra visits at Easter.…”

‘I think I'm more free with them'—Conflict, Negotiation and Change in Intergenerational Relations in African Families Living in Britain

“…Across the families, approaches to transmitting cultural values varied but they shared common struggles with getting their children to understand and relate to the cultural practices of their 'homelands' that were often distant from their children's lives. Visits to CoO played a fundamental part in bridging cultures but gaps still remained (Levitt 2009;King, Christou and Teerling 2011). For example, some parents spoke of having a cultural distance between themselves and their children.…”

Following People, Visiting Places, and Reconstructing Networks. Researching the Spanish Second Generation in Switzerland

“…The second generation did not initiate a transnational network and a cross-border community. Rather, they are born into an environment where social networks extend across national borders and where family life is organized according to a yearly cycle of visits and holidays with the family "back home" (Louie 2006;Wessendorf 2010;King et al 2011). The connection to their parents' country of origin is strong enough for some people of the second generation even to migrate and reside there.…”