Socratis Behlevanas (1897- 1961)
Migrant Profile: Socratis Behlevanas
based on an interview with Stavroula Saunders (nee: Behlevanas)
by Vasilios Vasilas
Many of the village men at the time had a strong sense of adventure; to overcome their poverty and hardships, they were willing to take risks and migrate to faraway places as the United States of America or Sudan. Uncertainty did not faze them. Socrates’ brothers, Panagiotis and Andonios, were already in the United States in the 1920’s- in the state of Delaware; however, he could not join them as the United States were not taking migrants at the time. Because horiani (co-villagers) had also migrated to Australia, he followed their initiative and arrived in 1929.
