The following op-ed was submitted by third-year Brooklyn Law School student Alex Kambanis in response to what he called “blatantly xenophobic” comments from other Pappas Post readers on previously published articles. Kambanis earned a master’s degree in international studies from Durham University in England and wrote a thesis focusing on the nexus between immigration policy and contemporary forms of slavery. The views expressed do not necessarily belong to The Pappas Post.
I recently found a letter my grandfather, George, wrote to the United States Commissioner of Immigration in 1924:
“My father was taken a prisoner of war as well as one of my brother [sic], and both of them died in prison, leaving me as the sole supporter of my mother and two sisters…During the war, I served in the army, receiving a [sic] honorable discharge…My mother is too old to work and support the sisters, and they are too young to support themselves…If they were left there, they would have no one with whom they could stay, and would be left to the mercy of strangers and the danger of falling into the hands of those who are preying upon the minds of young refugees left stranded in countries foreign to their nature.”
George Kambanis, August 7, 1924, Petition for Refugee Status
George received a response, albeit six months later. Immigration policy took a markedly restrictive turn in 1924 for Greeks and other southern Europeans. Unfortunately, he came from the 1920s version of a “shit-hole country.” A few years after World War I, the country George had served turned a deaf ear to the pleas on behalf of his family.
The industrial revolution created a demand for unskilled labor. Between 1900 and 1910, a staggering 8.8 million immigrants came to the United States, the overwhelming majority from eastern and southern Europe. My grandfather was one of 46,283 Greek migrants who entered the U.S. in 1907. Despite filling low-paying, dangerous jobs citizens refused to take, many “real Americans” feared that unless measures were quickly taken to curtail the influx of southern and eastern Europeans, “their” nation would soon be unrecognizable. Many of these “real Americans” themselves were only a generation or two removed from Europe, and their arrival had similarly generated fear, sometimes violence, and calls for tighter borders.
Anxiety steadily grew as WWI, the global influenza pandemic and the 1920-21 economic recession stoked fears among the “real Americans” about the imminent threat posed by uncivilized invaders. In 1924, Congress responded with the National Origin Quota Act, whereby immigration quotas were set at 2% the number of foreign-born persons of any nationality in the United States in 1890. Indeed, use of the 1890 Census as opposed to the most recent 1910 one was deliberate, as it guaranteed that the majority of visas (nearly 85%) went to Brits, Germans, Scandinavians and the Irish. Use of the 1890 Census had a pronounced effect on Greek immigration. Whereas 3,000 Greeks annually would have received visas under the 1910 Census, a mere 100 Greeks were to be admitted annually.
Sadly, many Greek Americans now willfully forget or are unaware that not so long ago calls for their exclusion were expressed with the same force and sincerity as contemporary cries to exclude Syrian refugees and Latin American migrants. I frequently find myself aghast reading comments on The Pappas Post.
Some “real American” characterizations of Greek immigrants were unabashedly xenophobic, like one newspaper labeling Greeks “a vicious element unfit for citizenship” and “the scum of Europe.” More insidiously, most veiled prejudice in pseudoscientific concepts of racial superiority. Sociologist Henry Pratt Fairchild highlighted the apparently low intelligence of Greeks, remarking that “while [they] are superior to the South Italians, they are decidedly inferior to the northern races, and to the Hebrew.” Furthermore, the “extreme loyalty of the modern Greek to the formal worship of the [Greek Orthodox Church],” served to impede Greek assimilation into American society.
In 1911, the Dillingham Commission, tasked by Congress with examining immigration trends, diagnosed the corrosive effects southern and eastern European immigration:
“[U]nlike the British, German, and other peoples who came during the period prior to 1880,” recent immigrants, “as a class [are] far less intelligent.” While the former came to “be part of the country,” and thus “thoroughly merged into the population,” the latter “are actuated in coming by different ideals, for …[they come] with the intention of profiting, in a pecuniary way, by the superior advantages of the new world and then returning to the old country.”
The same siren song proclaiming outsiders pose an existential threat to the U.S. has accompanied every group seeking to immigrate to America. From the Irish to the Jews to the Greeks, their exclusion was demanded by “real Americans” as necessary in preventing disturbance. Nevertheless, no sane individual today takes a revisionist line in questioning the virtue of extending membership to those groups.
One need not subscribe to any particular theory of global distributive justice to recognize that instability brought on by any combination of war, famine and/or economic depression have and will remain the primary causes of mass migration. More often than not, bigotry, rather than any coherent financial or national security need, precipitates restrictive shifts in American immigration policy. Accordingly, the same illiterate Greek laborer, hastily processed through Elis Island one day, is deemed an illegal the following day. Tainted by the mark of illegality, he is related to an inhumane quality of life.
So please, before angrily screaming “MALAKA,” take a moment and ask yourself if the motives of that El Salvadorian mother and child fleeing drug violence are indeed dissimilar from that of your ancestors fleeing the Turks. Alternatively, is that Syrian orphan really less capable of assimilating than your grandmother, who spent 60 years in America, speaking only broken English? And finally, ask yourself whether for one second the arbitrary mark of illegality would have stopped your grandfather from doing everything possible to ensure that he was able to protect and provide for his family.
Note: The featured image is a photograph of the Kambanis family taken circa 1910 while they were still in Asia Minor.
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10 comments
Bravo! Wonderful piece.
Christine Maroules
Thank you Christine! – Alex
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Many, many Greeks either don’t know their own history in this country, or are so eager to be accepted that they willfully forget . . .
A Greek fleeing a Turk in the early 1900s was doing so because of the genocidal madness initiated by the Turkish regime. This is not by any means the case in El Salvador as you state. State-sponsored genocide, on the one hand, criminal violence, poverty on the other. The Syrian fleeing Syria is more accurate in similarities to the plight of the Greeks (in the 1900s) especially Syrian Christians who were systematically targeted by Islamic fundamentalists and executed in cold blood. Thousands of them.
Your point in reminding all of us that we should keep an open mind, remember our own immigration past is a valid one. In the same token, Greeks exemplified a massive desire to assimilate into American society, a fact I feel you underestimate in your piece. Sticking to the mother tongue spoken by yiayia had more to do with her desire to keep her identity intact. All first wave migrant groups behaved like this. This is not so much a conscious refusal of assimilation. No reputable voice in today’s discourse argues that Latinos who stick to Spanish, for example, refuse to assimilate. On the contrary, today, we seem to have our fair share of apologists defending illegal immigration which as spiraled. The key word here is illegal. Greeks were not deemed legal one day (going through Ellis Island as it were) and then deemed illegal. They were deemed undesirable. There is a fundamental and legalistic difference. American culture changed their attitude towards Greeks and a large part of that was due to the fact they were legally allowed access into the country because of the rate of assimilation but even more important due to the contributions Greeks were making to American society. Greeks were welcomed during the second wave of Greek migration to the United States in the 1960s. The last 7 years, the number of Greeks entering the United States, again, through legal channels has been on the rise.
Assimilation no matter how biased it may be via the broken immigration process does nevertheless expose one to American jurisprudence and a minimal blanket of rights. And this, I would argue, is the core foundation that helps change society’s xenophobic ways.
@Thanos Just wondering what statistics you have sourced for the comparison of the “desire to assimilate” by refugees of the past versus illegal immigrants today?
Yassou JJ,
Please note that my reference is towards immigrants and not refugees. Greeks and others in the early part of the century, entering the United States were migrants in large number, not refugees (seeking asylum). Today’s influx of immigrants are no different. So, I’m not looking to “compare” any desire to assimilate whatsoever between the generational gaps nor ethnic groups. The overwhelming majority of those who move to foreign lands do so for a better life. Clinging onto language and culture is something to be expected (the point I took issue with the article).
Under the restrictive, Immigration Acts of 1882 and then 1891, which specifically targeted Europen immigrants, still, 90% made it through. Legally. The absolute numbers were controlled (downwards) but of those who made the trip, nearly all got in. They had to deal with societal backlashes but that changed over time and hence, they kept coming. This is my point. What is also important to note is that immigration waves in American history had an environment which dictated (and dictates) the terms to it. If we continue to look the other way on illegal immigration and just stand on philosophical grounds (which no immigration policy of any country is ever based on) and detach it from societal, economic and political factors, social kickback will not slowly disappear as it has in previous times, it will only intensify. The uncontrolled influx of illegal immigration in all its forms will only cause the belly of the beast to keep growling. How easy it is then, to play to that tune. Wouldn’t you agree?
It’s a bit dated, but this article gives a pretty good account of immigration waves to the U.S.
https://www.prb.org/us-migration-trends/
My father was called a dirty Greek when he was growing up in the Detroit area. He was born in Detroit and he had to play with the dirty Italians who wouldn’t be accepted in schools where he was enrolled. Thank you for doing this research. The Orthodox faith has no room for nationalistic pride.
Thanks for this reminder that, no matter the circumstances humanity feels forced to leave, whether persecution or poverty or climate, everybody wants the same thing: a better future for themselves and their loved ones. Instead, today’s immigrants, legal or otherwise, are dehumanized, all too often by those of us whose grandparents (or parents) landed in North America seeking safety and opportunity.
Also, note that tens of thousands of Greek maritime workers jumped ship, or overstayed their visas. They were as illegal as the current illegals and they weren’t fleeing anything as severe as those crossing the border today. They quickly married US citizens and were allowed to stay here legally.
Today even the children born here of illegal parents fear to be hunted down and shipped off to a country who in many cases don’t even speak their language.
Enter legally, there is no problem. Enter illegally by the thousands, then we have a problem. Once we award illegals with more rights and benefits than our own citizens, is the day our nation will trend downward at a hasty pace. Additionally, changing our language to accommodate the illegals also does our nation no favors. Push 1 for English and 2 for Spanish has allowed the illegals to bypass assimilation. Same with signage and education.