Late night shower thoughts and takeaways from last night’s demonstration, in case you are interested in amateur cultural commentary on the Greek community in Germany. A thread 🧵(1/11)
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(2/11) Greek communities abroad may view problems of their homeland through a lens of nostalgia, viewing them as a normalised part of the identity of the place they yearn for and not necessarily as issues that have to be dealt with.
(3/11) Speaking about yearning: there is an underlying feeling that Greece is the place that forced them to immigrate. A lack of security on all levels is what keeps a lot of us away and a good amount would have never left if they were able to earn enough money, get good health care etc…
(5/11) Hopelessness is translated into participation in politics. Greeks abroad largely abstain from politics. On the one hand, Greece did not provide mail-in ballots until very recently and a lot of them don’t have a second citizenship.
(6/11) Therefore, participation in politics through voting abroad is difficult. But that is not all. Hopelessness for the home country means that a lot do not see a point in voting in Greece. Additionally, the idea of a future return makes participation in German politics meaningless.
(7/11) Returning is the end goal for many: this started with the Gastarbeiter generation, a lot of whom actually went back to Greece after their contracts ended or after retiring. The ones who didn’t passed the return to the homeland as an end goal and an ideal to their children.
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