Who is emigrating to Canada? For what reason are they choosing this country?
What are their expectations? Women who are travelling to work as maids; sailors
who “escaped” from the ships; students who wish to attend university; families which
are leaving Greece, Egypt and Constantinople due to political reasons. Their stories
reveal the different motives and aspects of the immigration process. Greece’s poverty,
the charged political climate following the Greek Civil War, the dream of a better future,
the desire to escape the patriarchic social establishment and the re-evaluation of gender
and family roles include some of the reasons for departure. On the other hand, the
immigration policies enacted by Canada contribute to the establishment of immigration
networks and in the ever-increasing immigration movement in the decades of the 1950s
and 1960s. In these cases, the immigrants’ expectations and strategies do not only
narrate the dream, but they also register the political, economic and gender reality
in the country of origin as well as in the host country.
