In the family home: roots tourism among Greek second generation in Italy

Abstract

This paper attempts to make a contribution to the niche area of roots tourism and the broader nexus of tourism and migration, in particular to the literature on roots tourism among second generation, which has only recently attracted scholarly attention. Despite a gradual increase in scientific contributions on roots tourism, most of the literature has focused on the experiences of the first, second and later generations as a single phenomenon. The principal originality of this work lies in the analysis on roots tourism in an under-explored geographical/ethnic context, that is Greek second generation in Italy. The purpose of this study, which is based on an analysis method that combines structured questionnaire data with life stories collected through in-depth interviews, is to analyse the relationship between second-generation Greek migrants’ attachment to the birth-country of their parents and their homeland travel. Specifically, frequency and reasons for their travelling, self-perception during their stay in Greece and their definition of ‘home’ are investigated. The results of the study show that frequent journeys to Greece are crammed with a much deeper meaning as they are transnational practices aimed at visiting relatives and friends, the desire to find cultural roots and relocating cultural identity.

Keywords:

• roots tourism
• second generation
• Greece
• cultural self-perception
• transnationalism
• home

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Greek Embassy and the Federation of Greek Communities and Brotherhoods of Italy for their moral support to my research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.