The Greek community in London

It is estimated that there are around 300,000 people born here in London who are of Greek origin.

The migration started from mainland Greece before the revolution in 1821 but until the 50's the number of people of Greek descent was relatively speaking small. The connection between Britain and Cyprus (Cyprus was a British colony until 1960) meant that a number of Cypriots (mainly Greek Cypriots) arrived here between 1955 to 1962 they were what is today described as the 'first generation' immigrants. They were invited by the British government in an attempt to rebuilt the country after the war as were other immigrant groups. Then we have the second generation who were born in Britain between 1960 to 1980 and now of course we have the 3rd generation the children of those born here who are more or less completely assimilated into British society. Most of them speak some Greek but are not very fluent in the language. I am constantly amazed and delighted, however, to see how proud and interested these young people are in retaining and knowing more about the culture of their parents.

The community has managed to retain its identity without rejecting the positive elements acquired from the diversity of other cultures that exists within London.

Most British citizens of Greek origin live in north London. Southgate is, for example,often referred to as small Greece. Haringey, Barnet, Enfield, Cambden and Islington also have a good proportion of Brits of Greek origin.

There are now moves to examine closely the plethora of small organisations that exist to represent the community and the project to unite all of these strands and interest groups is underway. There are prominent individuals of Greek origin born in this country but they have not come together as a group. There are around 22 Councillors in the London area, one Euro MEP and also an ex minister (Lord Adonis) not to mention George Michael and Peter Andre of course (thought I mention though...)

So there is a new energy to identify and unify the efforts and there is a lot of excitement and support for this initiative. I always ask people I meet of course to ensure that they join a union wherever they happen to be working!