«Αιτούμεν άμεσον απομάκρυνσιν τούτου». Οι προσφυγικοί σύλλογοι του Μεσοπολέμου απέναντι στους «σατραπίσκους» υπαλλήλους των υπηρεσιών της αποκατάστασης

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Asia Minor Catastrophe the Greek state was confronted with the unprecedented task of carrying out a resettlement program for 1.221.849 uprooted Orthodox Greeks. Theoretically, the newcomers had privileged access to the rehabilitation program implemented jointly by the Greek state and international organizations in the form of monetary, material and service support. Nevertheless, the National Schism, the economic recession and the political turmoil of the period influenced both the formulation and the implementation of the refugee policy. Refugees had to vie for resources that were constantly shrinking, an excessive bureaucracy with which they were unfamiliar and a hostile state apparatus which treated them as second-class citizens. Moreover, the immense size of the refugee population, its cultural diversity and their political affiliation with Venizelism affected not only their relations with the indigenous population but also their transactions with the civil servants (who were typically Old Greeks).
From the very beginning, refugee organizations that were formed based on the place of origin of their members became the vehicle of refugee adjustment to the new environment as well as the protectors of their interests against the natives. Their boards of directors undertook not only bureaucratic functions (issuing, for example, various refugee status certificates) and institutional roles (participation at various state committees) in the resettlement process, but also assumed the task to defend their members (among them many illiterates, Turkish-speakers and people deprived of networks and information) against the demands and the vagaries of the public administration.
The paper examines the initiatives developed by refugee organizations to compete with the chronic weaknesses of the state administration as well as their actions to overcome the obstacles, injustices and exclusions reserved for them by the employees of the rehabilitation services. It further aims to elucidate the role of the associations as pressure groups against the representatives of the rehabilitation services. At the same time, it analyzes the limits of their bargaining power in the whole rehabilitation process of the refugees.