Greek Women in Canada
A Greek immigrant to Canada tells her story in the following piece, extracted from an interview appearing in OVO Magazine No. 22/28 (1978), P.O. Box 1431 Station A,
Montreal, H3C 2z9, Canada. The woman, Vasso Kessaris, is Vice-President of the Greek Worker's Association.
I arrived in 1961 and I was 18 then. When I came, the idea was to stay for five years, make some money, go back to Greece and find a good husband, you know, with money...
I never thought that I would stay 17 years. No immigrants, I think, came at that time with the idea of staying very long, for sure not with the plan of staying forever in Canada, but of saving some money to go back...
I left my country because over there I couldn't find a decent job after I had finished high school... My brother sponsored my entry as he was already in this country. He actually had come to Canada illegally, jumped the ship where he worked, got married later and then stayed.
The first job I found was in a clothing factory, as a sewing machine operator, because my sister-in-law was already working there. She spoke to the boss, took me over one day and I started to work almost immediately, from 8 in the morning until 9 in the evening, with lunch-time from 12 to 1 and dinner-time from 5 to 6. We made about 55 or 60
cents per hour and I do still remember that at the end of the first week I had done 63 hours, including Saturday, and got paid $32 net. I was alone and I had no need for things like furniture, for an apartment as many other relatives did. People tried to save as much as possible by getting together in one place big enough for two or three families, brothers and sisters, some married, some with kids, some with parents. We used to live on Esplanade at that time, my brother, myself and his wife, his wife's sister with her husband and a child and a cousin of mine. That was something that happened to many immigrants at that time...
How was it in Greece? I came from a small village of 3,000 people and I came to Canada only because I had a brother already living here. Otherwise, my parents, even though they were very poor, wouldn't have let me come alone.
Some other girls came as domestic workers because many Canadians at that time asked for Greek girls to work in their houses and many many girls did manage to come that way. A cousin of mine came like that, as well as my sister-in- law. My trip was paid by my brother and with my work I paid him back afterwards.
$400 was then quite a big expense and when I arrived I actually had five dollars in my pocket... I was speaking a little bit of English then which I had learned in my village before leaving. Once I asked my brother about learning English and he told me: "What do you need that for? You are going to get married soon and you should stay home. Look, the bank workers get $15 a week and you get more, isn't that enough?"
Ten months after my arrival I got married and I had to be home after work doing the cooking for the husband, fixing everything for him and there wasn't much time left to go out to study. Two years after the marriage the kids arrived and three years later the divorce. I never stopped working since I arrived here, except during the two pregnancies, so I was able to manage by myself. After I had the first child, forty days to be exact, I got back to work. I used to take my child to a lady early in the morning and picked him up later in the afternoon. I worked in three different places before starting at the place where I have been now for nine years, making suits for men. The work is by piece. I remember that when I had the second child and got back to work again I had to leave both children in a nursery which cost $44 a week. I made $2 per hour, so it was $68 net a week and the balance left wasn't very much, just enough to eat. I had to ask for a raise and they answered me that the only way to make more money was to do piece-work. Of course I accepted, there wasn't much of a choice left, anyway. I was forced to accept, it was take It or leave it.
Between the work and the children, the only joy for me is to come in here, at the (Greek) Association, meet some people, try to understand and solve common problems, learn how to fight to improve our standard of living, exchange ideas, get involved.
Did girls manage to come alone? In Greece girls have to have money in order to get a husband. If her family is poor she has to earn her dowry herself and that is one of the reasons why so many women came to Canada. Once in Canada, many brought a man that they didn't even know over from Greece. Many marriages were arranged like that, with fake letters to show to the Immigration by the groom who was sponsored by the bride. But sometimes It happened the other way around. It would be the man who would sponsor a wife-to-be...
How did you get involved with the Association? When I came the first time to the Association I wasn't at all aware of what the Association did, but I came because I was terribly lonesome at home...
But it was enough for me to be able at that time to find people to talk with, to leave the house for a while. My husband had disappeared for seven months and when he finally decided to come back I didn't accept him and I applied for the divorce myself. He did that to show me how Important he was but, of course, I understood the opposite. If he didn't help me during those seven months that was proof enough that I could very well manage without him, plus the fact that often he was not working and my salary was for the two of us.
In the Association I started understanding much better all the problems women have to face: why they are considered inferior, why they have to work so hard to achieve a better standard of living.
