Modern Greek-American Culture

In 1528 a Greek named Theodorus arrived with the Spaniards at Tarpon Springs, Florida. He was the first greek to land in America. Thereafter, until the 1880s, Greek immigration to the United States was minimal. However, by the 1890s, Greek immigration increased significantly due to the precarious economic conditions in Greece. However, only about 15,000 immigrants had entered the United States by the end of the nineteenth century. Rather, the mass influx of Greek immigrants occurred at the turn of the century and ended in 1917 when the U.S. entered World War I. During this period, almost half a million Greeks entered the country. Thereafter, approximately 70,000 Greeks emigrated to the United States until the doors of immigration closed in 1924. Since World War II, and especially after 1966 when the immigration laws were changed to allow easier entrance for the relatives of persons already here, over 235,000 Greeks have immigrated to the Uni

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. They lived frugally to save and send money to their relatives in Greece. It is hard to locate accurate statistical data on the occupations of the early immigrants; however, in 1907, the consul general in New York City estimated that of the 150,000 Greeks in the United States, between 30,000 and 40,000 were working as laborers in factories and railroad construction gangs. Others were employed as bootblacks, waiters, and clerks in stores that catered to the immigrant trade. Some had become apprentices in various trades, while the more ambitious already had become shopkeepers. An undisclosed number owned and managed their own grocery stores, coffeehouses, barbershops, clothing stores, bakeries, carpentry shops, saloons, cleaning and pressing shops, laundries, print shops, meat markets, and brokerage firms. The legal and medical professions were also represented, but in relatively smaller numbers. Moskos argues that within a few years of the earliest migrations, Greek immigrant society began to reflect the process of internal class and social stratification that characterizes American society as a whole. He observes that the beginnings of a Greek-American middle class can be detected by 1910. Nonetheless, by the 1920s
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1303
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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