The Gavra project – problems, sources, methods
During the 1960’s Greece experienced a massive emigration. From the village of Gavra a large part of the villagers left for Sweden, while others moved to Greek cities, mostly to Thessalonica. In this research project we wanted to follow the two migration streams from the village. We wanted to know
- If and how the life-courses differed between those villagers who left for Sweden and those who stayed in Greece
- Which impact these two kinds of migration had on the children in the “second generation” – in terms of education, job career, family pattern etc.
In the project we have used seven major sources of data:
1. We have used the large Immigration database in Växjö that has data on all emigrants in Sweden in 1970. Here we find data on all Greek immigrants in Sweden - data on jobs, incomes, family situation etc up till 2000. We also have data on the children of the Greek immigrants.
2. We have conducted a survey covering all households in the Village (husband and wife) in the migrating generation (those born 1925-50). We have got 106 interviews about 55% of the relevant villagers. The survey was conducted in 2004-2005. These interviews focussed on the job career, geographical mobility, family situation, incl. data on the education and job careers of the children. This part of the project was done in co-operation with scholars at the Aristotle University in Thessalonica.
3. We have done a series of systematic life-history interviews with villagers, both among those who migrated to Sweden and those who stayed in Greece. We have done more than twenty life histories. Some were follow-ups of interviews done already in 1970.
4. We have constructed more than forty “family trees” including all the families in the village.
5. We have done a postal survey with the “second generation”, both among those who grew up in Sweden and those who grew up in Greece, as well as some life history interviews. 6. We have used photos of the village, the villagers as well as the village graveyard as arguments in our text, not just for illustration
7. And we have of course used existing literature, administrative records, archival material, maps, election and population statistics etc. In this way we have been able to link different sources of data, to do a systematic analysis of life trajectories through the use of biographically oriented life histories. This is how the Greek Village project have made use of the data on the Greek immigrants in Sweden and what has happened to them – and their children - over a time span of more than 35 years. We have published a number of research reports, all published on the homepage of the project: www,gavraprojektet.se, as well as a monograph (in Swedish), Gunnar Olofsson and Thomas Thomnell, Gavra - Historien om en grekisk by och dess invånare (Arkiv, Lund,2012).