Sorry for the (very) late response.

DD, I think this is not the first time you have something specific in your mind about the direction that you would like to see the discussion unfolding, and your visitors seem to have a different opinion. I’d suggest you quit hoping. It is like trying to herd cats.

Oath taken, this was not my translation. It is from the Athens News. I do not have the text of the oath in Greek.

It’s amazing to me how a bad translation of a standard oath (variations of this oath are used in the army by conscripts after their basic training, in schools by newly appointed teachers and elsewhere and in all those cases apply to all Greek citizens, not just naturalized immigrants) can give rise to such nonsense (true to the practice of drinking tea…). I’m even more surprised that someone who has been living in Greece for more than a few years can misinterpret the whole meaning of the oath so much. Of course patrida in the context of the oath does not mean one’s original homeland but the common (new in this case) homeland of the people taking the oath, ie. Greece. And it’s not “true to my homeland”, it’s “faith to the homeland”, that is an oath of fealty or allegiance. Of course some people would say that a citizen’s only obligation is to obey the laws and this allegiance story is nationalistic crap but they are the same people your average Greek (or Brit for that matter) would dread to have to depend on in times of national crisis. Then again there’s nothing stopping someone who wants to be naturalized from taking the oath and completely disregarding it.

Nationalism is so odd. Is there any country where you don’t have to swear allegiance to become a citizen? Pretty certain the U.S. requires such, among other things.

Excuses Excuses George!
Anyway my contribution I believe is food for thought to you all!

To John C: I believe it is much more easier to adapt to Britain and the USA then Greece.

Birthplace is the place you were born, and I suppose homeland is technically where you consider to be your home, so I would agree with whoever said you could have two (or even more) homelands. I have a friend who was born in Switzerland, but he’s lived his whole life in the USA and does not has Swiss citizenship, and his ethnicity originates from another country.

True for most Greeks homeland is Greece. Take me for example. I am a couple of decades in UK. It could have been infinite more easy If I had taken the UK nationality and passport. Instead I chose NEVER to relinquish my Greek Passport and Nationality. I am as Greek as I always had been. Both in the official sense as in true reality
I believe that in practice I love and respect my host country perhaps more than some of the indigenous people here! In many ways I have become British in certain aspects of life. But my ultimate allegiance is to my Patrida! It is to the small, weak, poor perhaps corrupt and often disorganised Greece! For better or the worse this is my PATRIDA! This will always be!
If I would had taken the British nationality as far as I am concerned it would had a flavour of dishonesty and opportunism. This concept applies to me as anybody else. I came to the UK invited never tried to cross the border illegally never try to gatecrash always obeyed the laws and procedures, never try to force my existence to the locals never ask them to change their customs and practices to accommodate me. Never stupidly criticised me as part of the cultural shock of change! It was me that I have to do the adaptation NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND! I respected them and they respected back my effort my attitude and honesty! It is a very happy case.
Of course the case of US, Canada, S Africa, and Australia is somehow different as they had become countries from colonies of other states with well established sense of NATIONALITY and these very concepts have to be flexibility in their definitions.
In conclusion I believe that in time when the idea of multiculturalism becomes a dogma used by some as a steam roller to iron and stretch out differences, a concept imposing drastic changes to established nation’s identities, used as instrument of blanket imposition of globalisation from above, when masses of population are moved around not from their own free will but from purely financial rationale, the idea of HOSPITALITY (FILOXENIA) becomes the BEST ALTERNATIVE. I offer Filoxenia and this is a gift! A gift that can work beneficially both ways! I gift who will make those offering it in touch with core human values and a gift that will translate as respect for those accepting it. A state that instead of creating the murky differences and allegations of today can create lasting FRIENDSHIPS!
Of course if I cannot afford to offer this gift NONE should force me to do so! And those receiving the gift of Hospitality and after some time feel that have become one , in love with the place and its people to the point they truly and honestly feel their allegiances have fundamentally shifted they will then have to openly accepted to cross the other side! A marriage of love and devotion NOT a marriage of convenience!

I was trying (in a fairly clumsy way, I suppose) to ask a more general question about allegiance and what being true to any homeland means. Let me put it this way, If I was pledging to be true to Greece, what does that mean to me as a person born and brought up in England ? If you as a Greek person was swearing to be true to England, what would that mean ? Or if it means I am swearing to be true to the place I was born, again what does that mean ?

I think Greeks understand patrida always as being Greece…

DD: that is not how I understood it, some dictionaries define it your way but quite a few extend the definition using the concepts of residence and belonging.

Contrary to the opinions of many Greeks, across the world there are tens of millions of people who have more than one “homeland” [which I suppose is a translation of patrida]. American Greeks, for example, have to swear allegiance to the USA but will also be conscripted [and have to swear allegiance to Greece] under certain circumstances, even if they did not acquire a Greek passport or taftotita. This is a matter of multiple homelands, created by Greece, which considers the homogeneia to be Greeks with a homeland of Greece. They were born in the USA and elsewhere, though.

Papa Duck,
Homeland means the place where you where born, as far as I know.

This is confusing. Are you sure that the homeland to which the person refers is not their adoptive homeland i.e. Greece? It would be odd if the Greek State required naturalised citizens of, say, Turkish origin to be true to Turkey, a country with which Greece has come close to war on numerous occasions in my lifetime.