The Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley may have declared ‘we are all Greeks’ but the question of who is a Greek and what makes us Greek increasingly plagues not just the diaspora, but Greeks in Greece, too. An interesting initiative, the Got Greek? survey posed that question to young Greek Americans. Vicki James Yiannias discusses some of the findings with professor Nicholas Alexiou who developed the questionnaire.

Whether one-sixteenth or one hundred per cent Greek, first or fifth generation or anything in between, college students recently had the opportunity to share their unique perspectives on how their Hellenic heritage relates to various aspects of their lives–from food and music to family and friends in The Next Generation Initiative’s National Student Research Study, Got Greek?.

What’s it all about?

“This study is not about who’s more Greek or less Greek,” says third-generation Greek American Stephanie Marudas, who had the idea for the survey and is the director of the Got Greek? project. “It’s about how the Greek heritage of the new generation plays out–or not–in their daily lives.”

Says Leon Stavrou, executive director of The Next Generation Initiative: ”I think our board member George Stephanopoulos said it best when he said, ‘There are many more young people who say they’ve ‘got Greek’ than we knew or imagined...there are thousands of young people out there who are part of a brand new generation showing the world why’.”

Developed by Professor Nicholas Alexiou, the Got Greek? survey is based on his previous study, The New Second Generation of Greek Americans, carried out at Queens College around the time of the 2004 Olympics hosted by Athens. Got Greek? (which was launched with major support by the Zapis Charitable Foundation, the Maliotis Charitable Foundation, and others) is perhaps the first-ever national study of its type and offered 930 respondents–two-thirds of whom are second- and third-generation Greek Americans, with an American-born majority–the opportunity to talk about “being Greek”.

Got Greek? is a fun, punchy title that echoes a long-standing advertising campaign for dairy, but letting the next generation talk and really listening to what they have to say is a dead-serious step toward community understanding of the age group critical to Greek American survival–in Alexiou’s words, the ”new second generation”. “After a little more than a century of a continuous presence in America, the major concern of the Greek American community is still how to maintain its ethnic identity and culture. Got Greek? investigates exactly that by determining to what extent young Greek Americans are integrated into the ethnic community culturally, socially, and psychologically,” says Alexiou.

In sociological research, an immigrant to the U.S. is considered to be first generation. The ”new second generation” are the children of the 200,000 Greeks who entered the United States from 1965-1980 after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, bringing the Greek population in the United States from less than one million in 1970 to about 1.1 million Americans who state they have some Greek ancestry. (Since Greece’s admission into the European Union, Greek immigration has hovered at 1,000-2,000 annually, with almost an equal number returning to Greece.)

“We talk a lot in our community about ‘is it going to be a community in fifty years?’ So why not ask? Why not find out how today’s young people are connecting?” says Marudas.

They asked. The results are in. Alexiou’s statistical analysis, presented to the Got Greek? team earlier this year, will be published before 2012.

Asked for a general comment on the results of the study, Alexiou says: “The findings show that this young and well-educated new generation loves whatever is Greek, that they care about Greece…not necessarily about political matters, but to visit, the music, the food, the culture. But the community needs to offer them more. They are Americans...Americans of Greek descent, that is all, unless they make connections with the Greek American community, and with Greece.” Alexiou cites, as an example, The Next Generation Initiative’s “Reinventing Greece Media Project”, in which a group of college-age and post-graduate journalists spent time in Greece this past summer, interviewing government officials, business people, and other members of Greek society about their ideas for Greece, as developing feelings of connection.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty on language, names, food, and other cultural symbols, and ethnic continuity, Alexiou discusses some more results of the study, beginning with language.

“Language is perhaps the most salient aspect of ethnic culture, so responses to the items measuring the respondents’ frequency of using the Greek language are used as indicators of their cultural/social ethnic attachment,” he explains, noting that overall, the respondents said that if their parents, grandparents, or siblings speak Greek, that is the language used at home or in social settings. “Most of the respondents always spoke Greek with their parents as they were growing up, and continue to do so as adults. This is in comparison to one-third of the sample, who never spoke Greek with their parents either growing up or as adults. It’s possible that a certain degree of cultural assimilation has occurred in this latter group since they don’t speak Greek with their parents.”

Moreover, the ethnic composition of the respondents’ friends, partners or spouses, reflect their ethnic attachment, says Alexiou. “The survey showed that although the majority of the family’s friends are of Greek heritage and the respondents’ friends are not necessarily Greeks, the new generation prefer to spend more time with friends of Greek heritage. At the same time the majority of young Greek Americans say it is important to them to date or to marry someone with Greek heritage.”

Next up on the agenda is the topic of names. In keeping with Leon Stavrou’s statement, “earlier generations of Greek Americans would be surprised by their names, attitudes, and even appearances, but third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation Greek Americans consider themselves Greek and are proud of it... they are just expressing it in new, different, and unexpected ways,” Alexiou reports on the fact that although previous studies on
Greek Americans indicated that one aspect of the Greek American community has been Anglicization of names, this is not the case for the post-1965 Greek American generations. “These generations don’t consider having an ethnic name as an important aspect of cultural trait. The overwhelming majority of the respondents have a Greek last name, and a Greek first name, but the importance of having a Greek last name is supported by only half of the respondents…it seems that American society is more receptive to Americans of Greek descent, who now do not experience discrimination based on their cultural characteristics.”

No surprise: Greek food still gets high ratings. Alexiou reports that Greek food remains a very strong ethnic cultural aspect, with the survey showing that the majority of the respondents cook and eat Greek food at home and at Greek restaurants. “Ethnic identification through ethnic food and various cultural symbols is strong in all measurements, from the Greek flag, the map of Greece, and pictures of Greece, to religious icons, the evil eye, and worry beads, as well as having Greek books, watching Greek movies, and listening to Greek music.”

Interestingly, the majority of respondents, in their interactions with other Greeks, Cypriots, and Americans, identify themselves as “Greek Americans” or as “Greeks”, and less as “Americans”. Selfidentification as “Greek American” signifies that the primary identity is American, modified by “Greek-ness”, says Alexiou, “In addition, and by all means, the young Greek Americans are proud of their Greek heritage, since their Greek heritage influences their identity. The respondents’ pride of heritage is emphasized by primordial ties–their Greek parents–or religion, as the basis of their ethnicity. This expresses an ethnicity based on commonalities.”

Indeed, the Got Greek? findings clearly show the respondents’ “positive willingness” and “desire for ethnic continuity and for interaction with the Greek American community in a cultural, institutional, or employment level,” when they are presented with the opportunity. This confirms Marudas’s feelings that “the ancestral past is not in danger of being forgotten by the new generation.”

But it is significant to note that the study also identified a negative in this area which communities might do well to recognize, what Alexiou refers to as “an important problematic”–the difficulty that Greek American community institutions have today in transmitting a strong sense of belonging to the youth or in introducing mechanisms that could maximize their social solidarity. “Only less than half of respondents feel a strong connection or feel connected with the general Greek American community or in their hometown Greek American community,” he reports, “Also, only one-third of the young Greek Americans feel connected with other Greek Americans of their generation.”

”This ‘ethnic Facebook’ involves an age group critical to our survival as a community,” says Dan Georgakas, Director of Greek American Studies Project at Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College, film critic and author, “I think the Got Greek? survey is terrific in that it’s by and about Greek Americans in college.” He adds, however, that because the respondents are self-selected, it is not a random sample, so the Got Greek? study must not be mistaken for a portrait of a generation.