Great Greek Emigration to America

From around 1890 to the 1920s, hundreds of thousands of Greeks emigrated to the United States, one of the largest movements of people in modern Greek history. Most were young men from rural areas, especially the Peloponnese, driven by poverty, the collapse of the currant trade in the 1890s, debt and lack of opportunity. Many Greeks also came from areas still under Ottoman rule, such as Asia Minor and the islands. Most of them intended to earn money and return home, and many sent money back to support their families, but many stayed. They settled in cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston and Lowell, and in the mining and railway towns of the West. They often started with hard jobs in factories, mines, and railway construction, or as street peddlers and shoeshine boys, before opening their own businesses, especially restaurants, candy shops and diners. They founded Greek Orthodox churches, schools and community organizations, the foundation of today's Greek American community. The flow slowed sharply after the United States introduced strict immigration quotas in 1921 and 1924.