PART OF THE BOOK “SELECTED PAPERS FOR MACEDONIA” BY SLAVÉ KATIN
Macedonian migration basically coincided with developments in the Balkans and it depended, even more, on the developments in Macedonia. As a result, the rate of moving away and going abroad to earn a living was conditioned, above all, by difficult economic hard ships, and in very few cases of national and political character. The miserable, difficult, and often impossible conditions of living and the constant struggle for survival forced many Macedonians to opt, among other things, for leaving their own country in order to settle somewhere else.
Therefore, the process of going abroad to earn a living at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century became a mass phenomenon and it was one of the strongest proofs of the then intolerable conditions, especially in Macedonian villages. The village-dwellers were leaving Macedonia on a massive scale and going to Solun, Tsarigrad (Constantinople), Smirna, Skadar, and outside of Turkey – in neighboring countries such as Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and sometimes in Austro-Hungary, France and Egypt.
Thus, several thousands from the regions of Lerin, Prespa and Kostur went to Tsarigrad and Smrina each year; those from Struga and Bitola mostly went to Skadar; while those from Prilep and the villages of the Prilep region went to Serbia and Bulgaria; those from Ohrid and the surrounding area went to Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, and there were many migrant workers from the regions of Veles, Kichevo, Demir Hisar, and Tetovo. According to an unwritten rule, the migrant workers returned to their homes after several years of working abroad and most often bought land and houses with their hard-earned money.
In addition, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Macedonians started working in overseas countries such as the U.S., Canada, Australia and South America (especially Argentina). Thus, it is known that the first migrant workers from Macedonia arrived on the North American continent in 1885, while the first large group was from the village Buff, Lerin Region and left in 1898. The first Macedonian – immigrant workers arrived in Australia after the First World War, while the first groups arrived in South America in 1924.
The process of going abroad to earn a living and moving away from Macedonia to the United States and Canada respectively was characteristic of the traditional migration areas: regions of Lerin, Bitola, Prespa, Kostur, Ohrid, Voden, Prilep, Struga, Solun, Tetovo and other parts of Macedonia.
The immigration waves from these parts increased after the 1903 Ilinden Uprising, but they became more intense after the Balkan Wars and the First World War, which, instead of bringing liberation from the five-century old slavery, led to the triple partition, oppression, assimilation, denationalization and physical destruction of the Macedonian identity and culture.
All this was done by Macedonia’s just liberated neighbours: Bulgaria, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Greece and Albania. What happened in the previous period during several centuries and what happened after the First World War led, for a relatively short period, to great migration movements and ethnic changes in certain parts of Macedonia that had disastrous consequences for the Macedonian population. Consequently, according to a report dated May 13, 1949 of the UN Special Committee for the Balkans, 232,000 Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia moved away, and the Greek authorities populated and colonized Aegean Macedonia with refugees from Asia Minor in their place.
The period after 1960 was also specific. As a result of the opening of SFR Yugoslavia to the world and its inclusion in the international division of labor, along with the creation of an urban population in cities and liberalization of the policy of going to work abroad, many workers and intellectuals from the former SR Macedonia moved away and settled in North America. Immigration waves from Macedonia to all corners of the world continue even today, but the intensity varies depending on the economic and political moments in Macedonia, the Balkans, and globally.
As a result of the many waves of migration and the increasing birth rate, the number of Macedonian imigrants is growing from year to year. However, there is no complete and accurate data about Macedonians living overseas, in the European Union, and in some neighboring countries.
Some more realistic estimates indicate that, from the mid 19th century to the present, more than one million Macedonians from all parts of Macedonia have moved to different countries. In the absence of complete statistical and other data, it is very difficult to accurately determine the exact number, but it is estimated that about 500 thousand Macedonian immigrants live in the U.S., Canada and Australia, out of whom about 150,000 live in the U.S., approximately 150,000 in Canada, and more than 200,000 in Australia and New Zealand.
It is estimated that more than 150,000 Macedonians live in Europe and other countries. It is also estimated that about 50,000 immigrants of Macedonian origin live in South America, Egypt, Great Britain, South Africa and Eastern European countries, as well as in Turkey, where there are more than 300,000 Macedonian-Muslims and ethnic Turks from Macedonia.
The modern economic emigration grew in intensity in the 90’s of last century when over 100 thousands citizens (including Macedonians, ethnic Albanians and others) left Macedonia. This is also confirmed by data from the 1994 Census of the Republic of Macedonia. According to this data, 17,611 people living outside of the country in 1994, out of whom about 50,000 left in the period 1989-1994. According to several indicators, these migration movements have continued with equal intensity until today. This is also confirmed by the size of the negative net migration (7,438 people annually in the period 1994-1996) and the data available from foreign sources. For example, according to the data of the Council of Europe, the number of Macedonian citizens only in Germany, Italy and Switzerland had increased to around 41,000 in the period 1996-1999.
The resettlement of immigrants from the camps in Greece, Italy and Austria to Australia, New Zealand and South America (Brazil and Argentina) mainly began in 1951; from 1957 to Belgium; from 1958 and 1961/62 to the Scandinavian countries, and then to the U.S., Canada and other countries. According to unofficial data there are also around ten thousands Macedonians from Belomorska (Greek occupied) Macedonia, as well as from Pirin (Bulgarian occupied) Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo.
Immediately after their arrival in their new environments in the postwar period the Macedonians started making attempts to organize themselves. In the beginning they were individuals-immigrants who had declared themselves to be anti-Communists in the detention camps. Those immigrants in Greek camps, however, who had declared themselves as Macedonians were exposed to a special regime of torture.
They were mainly members of the Macedonian National Committee (MNC), later renamed the Committee of Liberation of Macedonia (OKM), of the Movement for Liberation and Unification of Macedonia (DOOM), the National Liberation Front of Macedonia (NOFM), and other organizations. The Macedonians, especially in the west-European countries, in addition to being organized into political parties, joined together and established newspapers in order to express their political and national commitment.
In addition, an important chapter in the historical development of the Macedonians in the diaspora is dedicated to the issue related to Macedonians of Muslim the religion. There are several hundred thousands of them living in Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa and other cities in Turkey, as well as in Europe and overseas. They came mostly from Debar, the region of Reka, the village of Upper Vranovci, Veles, Skopje, Tetovo, Gora (in Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo respectively) and from other places. Characteristic of this Macedonian population is that they are Muslims, but have preserved the Macedonian language, cultural values, customs and traditions brought from Macedonia.
The early Macedonian immigrant workers in the past and Macedonian expatriates later came mostly from rural backgrounds and lived in a more difficult economic situation, having less education and low professional qualifications, unlike today’s immigrants who mainly have got higher education and are professionally trained. Hence, the main purpose of immigration was to provide a basic livelihood and earn money for their family. The number of immigrant workers who left their homeland for political reasons and just for the sake of tradition to go abroad to earn a living was very small.
However, among recent generations, as well as among the newcomers from more recent times, especially from the Republic of Macedonia, there are more and more highly educated immigrants with a higher cultural and social status that has set a new structural level in the Macedonian diaspora. Thus, there are intellectuals among them from different areas of activity that have established themselves not only in Macedonia but also worldwide.
The lifestyle of Macedonian emigrants in the diaspora has gone through a partial transformation due to changes in their economic, social, education, qualifications and increased monetary potential.
Moreover, many of them, especially from the Aegean part of Macedonia made their way into higher society where they live. But in regard to political life in their new environments and societies, the Macedonian settlers lag way behind other ethnic groups, as is the case with immigrants from other Balkan countries. However, their achievements on an economic, spiritual, educational, cultural and sports level contribute more and more so they are not treated as second-class citizens, but as an integral and important factor in the new communities in the diaspora, especially in multi-ethnic societies.
To be continued
BY DUSHAN RISTEVSKI-MAKEDON
