Despite the demographic and socio-economic significance of postwar Greek migration to West Germany, historical studies on Greek immigrants—both men and women—remain extremely scarce. This project will document the history of Greek immigration to West Germany between 1960 and 1981—from the beginning of the mass recruitment of Greek workers to the year Greece joined the European Economic Community. Based on extensive archival research in Greece and Germany, as well as personal archives and oral histories, the project will explore the complexity and change within the Greek population in Germany in the context of its changing economic, political, social, and cultural realities, also considering the relationships between ‘native’ and ‘migrant’ populations.

Drawing on extensive archival research in Greece and Germany, as well as immigrants’ personal documents and oral histories, the project will examine the complexities and transformations within the Greek population in the context of Germany’s evolving economic, political, social, and cultural realities. It will also analyze the dynamics between ‘native’ and ‘immigrant’ communities. Understanding migration as a process through which gender and other social categories are renegotiated, the study will focus on the differing work and life experiences of Greek men and women in Germany during the 1960s and 1970s, and on the changes migration brought to their identities and relationships. Furthermore, it will explore the diversity and internal relations of the Greek immigrant population, emphasizing three additional axes of difference: class, subethnic culture, and political stance. By analyzing gender, class, ethnocultural, and political diversity among Greek immigrants, and by highlighting the heterogeneity of their profiles, experiences, and strategies, the project seeks to recover the complexity of migration histories.