Intra-European mobility, emigration and new dynamics within Greek-Orthodox religioscapes

Abstract

The limited opportunities of the immensely contracted Greek economy since the eruption of the 2009 debt crisis gave rise to emigrational tendencies, particularly towards European countries. Europe was considered more approachable due to the freedom of movement, a fundamental EU principle. Notably, increased numbers of both unemployed Greeks – of varying levels of skills and training – as well as well-educated and employed Greeks wishing to pursue better social, working and economic conditions and rewards, relocated to several destinations, with Britain and Germany predominantly among them (Labrianidis & Pratsinakis, 2016). After emigrating, many sought to integrate within existing, relatively coherent diasporic ethnocultural and religious formations. Many utilised these social networks while seeking employment, being in part motivated by the social role of the parish as it has been embedded in the collective imaginary. In this framework, the question this paper asks is whether these migrants, being embedded in already existing religio-cultural networks, are being exposed to attitudes, value-systems and social practices anew. Namely, if and to what extent the predominantly collectivist cultural traits of the Greek emigrants/expats interface with the individualism-infused ones of the Greek-Orthodox diasporic communities. The question thereby arises as to whether constellations such as religioscapes, as forms of social organisation, inform and edify the newly-arrived on the particularities of the host culture within a context of an ‘old-new Diaspora’ discourse. From a sociocultural perspective it is neither uncommon nor new for the Greek Diaspora to engage in such exchanges and produce new and/or hybrid predominant cultural patterns within the framework of its religioscapes and communities, which are to some extent transferrable back to the homeland.