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TD's avatar

Wonderful article.

Hein de Haas in How Migration Really Works shows that it's pretty predictable for it to take 3 generations to assimilate to a new culture, whether the immigrant is a 19th century German or a 21st century Honduran. The first generation barely assimilates, maintaining language and cultural attitudes. The second has one foot in each culture. The third just maintain snippets of the old language and, even if they enjoy their grandparents' cooking, are indistinguishable from their peers in worldview and mannerisms.

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Liv Klingert's avatar

Brilliant article, Will! Clear and concise 👏

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Ben's avatar

Great article. Summarises the situation and history clearly.

I learned recently that one of the cornerstones of English civic national identity, the England football teams, doesn’t even require British citizenship to qualify for eligibility. A player only has to be born in the country (or to have one grandparent who was a citizen) to be eligible to play for the national team. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case for most if not all European teams.

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British History and Politics's avatar

These are FIFA rules, anyone with a grandparent from a country is eligible to play for that country.

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Will Solfiac's avatar

Probably, they're desperate for the best players

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Terry's avatar

Owen Jones, that's a Welsh name, not English, isn't it?

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