Long-Term Effects of the 1923 Mass Refugee Inflow on Social Cohesion in Greece
After the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish conflict, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox were forcibly displaced from Turkey to Greece, increasing the host population by 20 percent within a few months. Refugees were pro-vided with farmland, new houses and schools, a...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/216361643247188116/Long-Term-Effects-of-the-1923-Mass-Refugee-Inflow-on-Social-Cohesion-in-Greece http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36913 |
| Summary: | After the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish
conflict, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox were forcibly displaced
from Turkey to Greece, increasing the host population by 20
percent within a few months. Refugees were pro-vided with
farmland, new houses and schools, and were granted the Greek
citizenship. This paper analyses the long-term social
integration of refugees and the effect of their resettlement
on social cohesion. Combining historical and modern
population censuses and surveys, this paper finds that, by
the 2000s, refugees display a high rate of intermarriage
with Greek natives, report levels of trust in others and in
institutions similar to natives, and exhibit higher
political and civic participation. At the community level,
places with a higher share of refugees in 1928 are more
likely to have at least one sport association 80 years
later. There is no impact on political fragmentation nor on
crime. The historical refugees’ integration starkly
contrasts with the social marginalization of recent Albanian
immigrants who, unlike the former, neither spoke Greek nor
had the same religion as locals upon arrival. These results
suggest that early investments in inclusion policies can be
effective at fostering refugees’ assimilation, at least when
newcomers and locals have similar cultural profiles. |
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