Refugee Settlement in Greece

After the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the population exchange of 1923, Greece faced the enormous task of settling around 1.2 million refugees, at a time when the country's population was only about five million. Many refugees arrived with nothing, having lost their homes, property and often family members, and they lived at first in tents, camps, churches, schools and theatres. In 1923, the Greek government, with the help of the League of Nations, created the Refugee Settlement Commission, led at first by the American diplomat Henry Morgenthau and funded by international loans. The commission built new housing and settlements, and it distributed land, much of it taken from large estates and from Muslims who had left in the exchange. Many refugees settled in Macedonia and Thrace, strengthening the Greek presence there, while others created new neighborhoods around Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, many named after their lost homelands, such as Nea Smyrni, Nea Ionia and Kaisariani. The refugees brought new skills, industries, music such as rembetiko, and cuisine, and they profoundly shaped modern Greek society.