The Catastrophe of 1922 and its dramatic consequences were a catalyst in the process of the formation of the Greek state. Approximately 1,200,000 Greeks gravitated towards the Greek kingdom in the exchange of populations programme. With such a percentage representing more than one quarter of the total native population, refugee potential enriched both the urban and the rural elements of the country. The majority of the newly arrived came to the new fatherland without any resources, and were confronted, in addition, with the prejudice of the natives. At the same time, at least in the early inter-war period, these uprooted people who were struggling hard to survive suffered multiple pressures, living under a contradiction: caught between the deep wound of the recent Catastrophe and the hope of repatriation. However, the signing of the 'Friendship Treaty' by Ataturk and Venizelos in 1930 triggered both inevitable and unpleasant developments, rendering utopian and unrealistic the vision of resettling in the Asia Minor homeland.