Idyllic Times and Spaces? Memories of Childhood Visits to the Parental Homeland by Second-Generation Greeks and Cypriots

We analyse those parts of their life-narratives which refer to childhood visits to their ancestral homes in Greece and Cyprus. In nearly all cases these are memories of idyllic times and spaces – of beaches and the sea, of villages and the countryside, and of fine weather and happy times spent with extended families.

The key trope running through these memories of childhood visits is freedom: how children were allowed to 'roam free' until late at night, in contrast to the strict parenting and limited spatial and temporal freedom they experienced in the host country. However, different and sometimes less pleasant memories emerge when the visits took on a different character: for instance, when longer-term stays resulted from children being 'sent back' to be cared for by relatives, or when the children were older teenagers.