It's all Greek to me, diva! ;)

No, since we share the same "homeland": I was born and brought up in England, but prefer to call myself British because of Welsh origins to which I'm still strangely, in some ways jocularly, attached. A cousin of mine told me he was a lot less attached to Wales than I was, but then, he'd actually been brought up there. Fair enough. I spent the better part of my childhood in an English village where the Welsh (three families!) were considered wild and weird and infra dig. I never really belonged there socially or culturally, yet that village and its surroundings are part of me, as are other parts of England I lived in. Homeland? In a sense. Some of them give me a wrench and more when I think of them. And some of the things you mention, the humour, the dramatic capacity and hidden depth, the flip side of ordinary English dullness.

But I have lived longer in France, and chose to do so because I found this country more congenial, more down-to-earth, less class-ridden; and there are places I remember here too. Homeland?

I have never requested French nationality, though I could have done so long ago. This is because I expected that, with time, a European nationality would develop, and I would be happier with that than with French or British (while waiting for world citizenship...).

But it's not going that way, is it? These loyalty to the homeland tests that we hear more and more of are part of the rightward-shifting scene. They are the antithesis of the original aims of European construction. They are the beginning of the end of peace among us. And, as long as the EU ethos is defined by economic liberals in terms of free markets and competition between member states, this slide will go on.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

I can't tell if this sort of nonsense is the dying gasps of the patriotic nation state or the forerunner of another phase of aggressive nationalism.

I'm sort of hoping the former, because the latter is going to lead to a lot of dead people.

I have never had to swear allegiance to my homeland. Only immigrants have to do that !

That sums it up for me.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

I swear to be true to my homeland

I thought... yes of course ! (I told you!) Right. Well. Hmm. What does that mean ?

Nothing. Objectively nothing. Subjectively, different things. These differences are normally overlooked, sometimes they lead to civil war.

But I swear allegiance not to geographic areas or state institutions or names for grouping people, but my idea(l)s. Nah, no need to swear allegiance to those!

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

afew,

I expected that, with time, a European nationality would develop

Here's hoping ! And the day when I can turn round and answer that question of "where are you from ?" with "the world" will indeed be a happy one.

Colman,
I am suspecting that the latter is the case. Sadly and with huge amounts of dread.

DoDo,
For me too.

The only thing necessary for the persistence of evil is for enough good people to do nothing

I can tell you from a Greek-Americans point-of-view (born in Greece, lived in Italy before coming to the USA and becoming a citizen) swearing an oath literally means you will fight for your new country in a war should Greece and the US and UK ever engage in combat.

That's what the oath of allegiance means.

Think of Japanese internment in the USA in WW2.

Also, as an immigrant here, I'm allowed to maintain double citizenship in Greece/EU and the USA. Lastly, for myself, maintaining two cultures and fully mainstreaming myself into the culture is not a problem.

It's not difficult at all to multitask.

It's probably more difficult to leave a village in the mountains of Crete and live on the outskirts of Athens than it would be for, say, a person from Almeria, Spain to move to Athens.

Being English and true to my homeland, I would never have sworn an oath of allegiance. Just as I never said the Lord's Prayer in school...well not since I was 7 or so. Not cos I was being defiant, but because I am uncomfortable with conformity...as any English person should be. I don't believe it's really the act of a sensible person to be proud of an accident of birth, but I am aware that there is a cultural aspect to my instinct for dissent that I am pleased with,

Like afew, I have always hoped that a european nationality would develop, but I decided long ago that, in a choice between loyalty to europe or adherence to a UK that decided to secede from Europe and sink into mid-Atlantic irrelevance, I choose europe. But I will always be English.


keep to the Fen Causeway

As as UK immigrant in the US I was asked to sign a loyalty oath when taking full time employment with U of Calif.  I refused.  No consequences -- it was a holdover from the McCarthy Purge Era, no one took it seriously any more.

My thoughts on home and loyalty are summed up by the first-act closer from Chess:

no man, no madness
though their sad powers may prevail
can possess, conquer my country's heart
they rise -- to fail

she is eternal:
long before nations' lines were drawn,
when no flags flew, when no armies stood
my land was born.

and you ask me why I love her
through wars, death and despair?
she is the constant, it's we who don't care.
and you ask me will I leave her --
but how?
I cross over borders, but I'm still there now.

how could I leave her,
where would I start?
let men's petty nations tear themselves apart!
my land's only borders lie around...
my heart.

I could be reading too much into it, but I tend to parse this as a declaration of love for the biotic and geological reality of a country -- the actual land, water, flora and fauna, the web of biome and terrain and season that has nothing whatsoever to do with imaginary lines on maps and all the other delusions of empire.  in that sense I love my homeland (the UK) -- particularly the mysterious tidelands of Essex and Norfolk, of which I have childhood memories.  but I love those same northern tidelands in my new home, and one of the reasons it feels like home is that the terrain, the tides, the light, the weather "feel right".  perhaps my version of this song would include something about latitude, altitude, and rel hum :-)

the British flag means nothing to me, except a vague association with branded products and sporting events -- but the seaside lanes of Bacton, Norfolk, or the mud flats of Shoeburyness or S'end-on-Sea at low tide tug at my heartstrings like long lost family.  my land's only borders lie around my heart, indeed.

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

Only foreigners need oaths of allegiance, citizenship tests, language exams: born citizens get "grandfathered in" so to speak, and are allowed to be subversive, ignorant, inarticulate.

It'd be nice if the battle were only against the right wingers, not half of the left on top of that — François in Paris