Author: Yianni Cartledge
Cartledge, Yianni, 2024 Aegean Islander Migration to the United Kingdom and Australia, 1815-1945: Emigration, Settlement, Community Building, and Integration, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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This thesis explores Greek Aegean islander migration to the English-speaking world between 1815-1945. Two case studies form the focus – islanders from Chios who migrated to London between 1815-1910; and islanders from Ikaria that migrated to South Australia between 1900-45. This research aims to unravel how these two early migrant communities emigrated, settled, built communities, and integrated into their new nations, in a period which is often overlooked in modern accounts of Mediterranean emigration. Both communities left their homelands during turmoil (including the 1822 Chios Massacre, the Balkan Wars, and WWI), however, economic aspirations also played a role in their emigrations. Despite originating in the same part of the world, these islanders traversed different ends of the social strata (from working, to middle and upper class), gender compositions, and administrative contexts. The ways in which they maintained identities (islander, Greek, and diasporic), interacted with the policies and populace of their new nations, and utilised broader imperial networks, all form part of their narratives. It is the contention of this thesis that these migrations reflect the major political and economic world events of the period, local ethnic and national identity tensions between newly formed Greece and the Ottoman Empire, migration trends and policy in the Anglosphere, as well as the individual challenges and identity crises of early migrants, illustrating that these histories are inextricably linked, culminating in a significant early Aegean islander migration to the West.
Keywords: Aegean islands, Aegean islander, migration, immigration, emigration, settlement, community building, integration, identity, Greek, Greece, Ottoman, Australia, United Kingdom, London, South Australia, Chiot, Chios, Ikaria, Ikarian, Adelaide, Port Pirie, Ralli
Subject: History thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2024
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Andrekos Varnava