Diaspora Digital Map: Greeks in the USA

1. Introduction to the Greek Digital Diaspora Map

The Greek Digital Diaspora Map constitutes a unique digital record that represents the Greek presence abroad. The initial data for this map have been provided by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereon “MFA”), Greek Ministry of Education, the Centre for the Greek Language and the Onassis Foundation. These databases were enriched with further research by SEESOX, they were also further developed and re-categorised. The aim has been the creation of the digital map as an openly accessible tool that reaches a wide audience beyond academia.

The initial data of the map included a wide range of organisations of the Hellenic Diaspora as well as information regarding their type, location and contact details. The database has been refined and re-organised through the inclusion of two main selection criteria determining the profile of each diaspora organisation: (a) ‘Activity’ and (b) ‘Geographical Origin’. The first criterion refers to the nature of organisations’ activities/goals/purposes and the second one indicates the regional origin of the organisations’ members (wherever applicable). More concretely about the second criterion, ‘Geographical Origin’, it is used to categorise Greek diasporic organisations based on their regional identity. It is a status assigned by the MFA that signifies that a diasporic organisation has ties to a locale whether in Greece or elsewhere and which according to our own categorisation originates from one of the thirteen first-level administrative regions (περιφέρειες) of Greece or from Cyprus, Pontus, Asia Minor, Constantinople, Egypt, and Lebanon.

The tables below show analytically the definitions of Activities and Geographical Origins.

Selection Criteria: (a) ‘Activity’

2. The Greek Diaspora in the USA

Concerning USA, the number of the diasporic organisations and communities depicted in the Greek Diaspora Digital map is 1,161 in a total of 3,617. This means that more than 32% of the diasporic organisations and communities, are in the USA.

Specifically concerning numbers in the USA, the highest numbers are in the following states:

Regarding cities in the USA, the breakdown goes as follows:

Note: New York City includes Astoria with 73 organisations.

Specifically for our chosen research areas in the USA, the numbers are as follows:

State of New York: 233 organisations, out of which 81 are tagged ‘Community’, 76 ‘Religion’, 22 ‘Cultural’ and 17 ‘Social Welfare’. Organisation and Communities in the city of New York are 36 and 73 in Astoria.

State of Illinois: 142, out of which 59 are tagged as ‘Community’ and 37 as ‘Religion’, 11 ‘Professional’, and 7 ‘Cultural’. Organisations and communities in Chicago are 64, and 30 of them are tagged as ‘Community’, 8 ‘Religion’.

State of Massachusetts: 96, out of which 39 are tagged ‘Religion’, 30 ‘Community’, 10 ‘Cultural’, 6 ‘Professional’. Organisations and communities in Boston are 15, most of them tagged as ‘Community’.

State of California, Los Angeles: There are 4 organisations, 2 tagged as ‘Community’, and 2 as ‘Higher Education’.

3. Analysis of ‘Activities’ criterion

The table below shows the spread for the Activities concerning USA. Religion is the tag that appears the most, followed by ‘Community’, ‘Cultural’, ‘Social Welfare’, etc. 1,378 represents the tags of Activities which constitutes the largest number amongst the total of countries on the map.

USA has the biggest presence regarding diasporic organisations in the map. In the table below the top five countries with the most common ‘Activities’ in absolute numbers and in percentages.

Note: An organisation might have two different tags, like for example ‘Religion’ and ‘Community’, which is common.

Looking at the relationship between ‘Country’ and ‘Activity’, we can observe a strong presence of certain activities in particular countries. For example, the largest drivers are USA/Religion (574, i.e. 15% of the total ‘Activity’ tags assigned in our database), USA/Community (347, i.e. 9%), and Canada/Community (292, i.e. 8%). It is important to highlight the fact that despite ‘Community’ being the largest single ‘Activity’ with 38% of the Country/Activity distribution, it is more evenly distributed across multiple countries (i.e. USA 9%, Canada 8%, Germany 5% and Australia 3%). However, ‘Religion’ (with 20% of the Country/Activity distribution) is more heavily concentrated with a single Country, i.e. USA with 15% of this 20%).

4. Analysis of ‘Geographical Origin’ criterion

Looking only at organisations categorised according to ‘Geographical Origin’: 40% are based in the USA, 27% in Canada, 12% in Germany, 11% in Australia, and the remaining 9% are distributed among all other countries. The distribution of ‘Activity’ is overwhelmingly concentrated within ‘Community’ with 82%, while ‘Cultural’ and ‘Welfare’ follow with 5% each. The organisations categorised according to ‘Geographical Origin’ are more evenly distributed in comparison to the ‘Activity’ distribution above.  The ‘Geographical Origin’ with the largest concentration of organisations is the Peloponnese with 17%. Next there is a cluster of ‘Geographical Origins’ with 8% (Western Macedonia, Pontus, Central Macedonia, and the South Aegean). The smallest ‘Geographical Origins’ are notably Greek communities outside Greece such as Egypt, Asia Minor and Lebanon.

The ‘Geographical Origins’ are outlined below from the highest to the lowest numbers of their representation in the diasporic organisations of the map:

5. Conclusions

The study of the Greek diaspora in the USA is very important, not only because of its historic presence, but as the numbers of the map suggest, because of its size. We can draw some tentative conclusions based on the current map data, which are going to be further enriched. More than 32% of the Greek diasporic organisations and communities are in the USA. The most of them can be found in the states of New York, Illinois, California and Massachusetts. Additionally, the most organisations and communities can be found in the cities of New York and Chicago. When we look at the two criteria, according to which we have classified our data, we can draw the following conclusions. Most of the ‘Activities’ are tagged with ‘Religion’, which shows that the core point of reference for the American diaspora is the Orthodox Church. This is written tentatively, as from some initial research and discussions with experts on the Greek diaspora in the USA, it seems that the newer generations are functioning in a different manner, i.e. getting organised through online sites or focussing more on cultural activities, and not showing particular interest to religious affairs. Additionally, there is a large fraction of the data that is tagged as ‘Community’, followed with great difference by ‘Cultural’, ‘Social Welfare’ and ‘Federation’. It needs to be stressed that in a comparative mode with other countries with large Greek diaspora, like for example Canada, Germany and Australia, the strongest presence of ‘Religion’ is the USA. Turning to the ‘Geographical Origin’ criterion, it is important to mention that the most diasporic organisations with a ‘Geographical Origin’ characteristic (‘Εθνικοτοπικές οργανώσεις΄) are situated in the USA. The most organisations with this tag have ties with the Peloponnese, Western Macedonia and the Pontus.