American Dreams and European Nightmares: Experiences and Polemics of Second-Generation Greek-American Returning Migrants

The article addresses how spaces of inclusion and exclusion encountered during the relocation and adjustment processes of second-generation Greek-Americans to the ancestral homeland produce multiple constructions of self and nation as well as fragmented discourses of ‘Greekness’, ‘Americanness’ and ‘Europeanness’ in forging a narrative of belonging. Narratives of (be)longing express competing discourses of cultural disruptions and ruptures of identity in the interactive space of ‘home’ and ‘host’ countries. Furthermore, the transformation of Greece from sending to receiving country as well as the politics of European integration and identification pose additional challenges to the current metamorphosis of Greek society. Interestingly, the ambivalent character of Greek national identity provides an additional layer of subjectivity through which second-generation Greek-Americans attempt to redefine their sense of self and belongingness to the ancestral homeland.