We took a bath with the chickens: memories of childhood visits to the homeland by second-generation Greek and Greek Cypriot returnees
Article
King, R., Christou, A. and Teerling, J. 2011. We took a bath with the chickens: memories of childhood visits to the homeland by second-generation Greek and Greek Cypriot returnees. Global Networks. 11 (1), pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2010.00304.x
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | We took a bath with the chickens: memories of childhood visits to the homeland by second-generation Greek and Greek Cypriot returnees |
Authors | King, R., Christou, A. and Teerling, J. |
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. |
Keywords | Second generation; Return migration; Childhood; Memory; Transnationalism; Greece; Cyprus |
Publisher | WileyBlackwell |
Journal | Global Networks |
ISSN | 1470-2266 |
Publication dates | |
Jan 2011 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 17 Oct 2013 |
Output status | Published |
Additional information | Article first published online: 11 Nov 2010 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2010.00304.x |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/8471x
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