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Ethnic ties in the modern Aussie football landscape

LFC said:
not strange from left field - and may I say my outlook in all this discussion may not apply or agree with others

30K becoming a Pom am I reading that right ?

Interesting take from whats doing there, my observations here amongst fellow ethnic fam and others I learnt determination from them to be proud Aussies after all the abuse/racism/put downs/made out as if you were 2nd rate, ethnics put their heads down and I'll prove them anglos wrong, I'll work hard/play hard and I'm a proud aussie I am patriotic and imo the Greeks/Italians/Cros did plus other nationalities. We luv Oz, our kids/2nd gen on are Oz but they also luv their Nonnos/Nonnas/Dads/Mums homeland.

Yep we just moved on - copped it for you couldn't do anything about it, much like many other ethnic bashing way back.

Obviously alot has changed since those earlier days - I mentioned I wouldn't hold back any of my kids IF they made it and played for Italy or Croatia let alone my wife's Portugal, one reason why ? our system/our whole crappy mess/lack of opportunity/the politcs, well politics is world over but worse because lack of choice/where else can you go/13 Pro Clubs for the heck squad of 20, thats a paltry 260 players ?! and the shit you got to go through.
I have 2 boys SAP/YL/NPL, putting aside mine, so so many I've seen are potential AL standard - they get sick of the bank ups at trials/the lack of spots aspiring getting to the top here, how many go to private academies, rip off but the kid has the potential, then he gets to europe and you wonder why as a dual international sits on the fence ? what do you owe to anyone thinking big picture making a buck for just 10yrs let alone who to align for NT, sure I'd tell him son you got no hope for the Azzurri put on the green and gold if when your asked, his call mind you his call.
Hope this kind of makes sense.
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Yep 30k over three years for my family to pay their visas thats 60k australian and another 10k in the 5th year for citizenship
So it sounds like the costly system with few pathways leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths?
 
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Utterly ridiculous - robbery.
Shuffling paperwork great UK income that.
Yer I wouldn’t be jumping hoops for it unless I had a heap of lbs to squander.
 
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LFC said:
not strange from left field - and may I say my outlook in all this discussion may not apply or agree with others

30K becoming a Pom am I reading that right ?

Interesting take from whats doing there, my observations here amongst fellow ethnic fam and others I learnt determination from them to be proud Aussies after all the abuse/racism/put downs/made out as if you were 2nd rate, ethnics put their heads down and I'll prove them anglos wrong, I'll work hard/play hard and I'm a proud aussie I am patriotic and imo the Greeks/Italians/Cros did plus other nationalities. We luv Oz, our kids/2nd gen on are Oz but they also luv their Nonnos/Nonnas/Dads/Mums homeland.

Yep we just moved on - copped it for you couldn't do anything about it, much like many other ethnic bashing way back.

Obviously alot has changed since those earlier days - I mentioned I wouldn't hold back any of my kids IF they made it and played for Italy or Croatia let alone my wife's Portugal, one reason why ? our system/our whole crappy mess/lack of opportunity/the politcs, well politics is world over but worse because lack of choice/where else can you go/13 Pro Clubs for the heck squad of 20, thats a paltry 260 players ?! and the shit you got to go through.
I have 2 boys SAP/YL/NPL, putting aside mine, so so many I've seen are potential AL standard - they get sick of the bank ups at trials/the lack of spots aspiring getting to the top here, how many go to private academies, rip off but the kid has the potential, then he gets to europe and you wonder why as a dual international sits on the fence ? what do you owe to anyone thinking big picture making a buck for just 10yrs let alone who to align for NT, sure I'd tell him son you got no hope for the Azzurri put on the green and gold if when your asked, his call mind you his call.
Hope this kind of makes sense.
Click to expand...
It is the passion and commitment in your life outlook (and all the others who share it) that highlight the mockery that ethnic purifying is for our sport.

The more I hear from you guys the less I care about the distinctions at the game.

Bellow for what you believe in mate and be damned the fellow who cries foul (damn - another t-shirt I have to buy for Mono).
 
grazorblade said:
I have a few questions

1) if your club produced the next big thing in aussie football, say someone who was first choice for barcalona, would you feel more proud if they opted to play for australia or for the country that your club is historically linked to
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It would make absolutely NO difference to me.. Having a player from Lakeside play at Camp Nou would be enought to make the heart flutter with pride... Whether they represented Greece, Australia, Somalia or Argentina in international football would be irrelevant to me.

grazorblade said:
3) did the exclusion of ethnic clubs by the a league followed by the club identity policy make you feel less aussie?
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Yes AND No. In a way it was just another jab at our identity, another way of putting football down as a sport and I saw it as more of a collective punishment than an exclusion on our Australian-ness... Growing up in Melbourne in the 80s and 90s anglo Australia made it abundantly clear that we should "go back to our own country" regardless of whether we watched soccer or AFL, its just the way it is..New migrant groups brought new anti migrant sentiment and eventually the waves of Vietnamese, Lebanese and later African migrants drew the brunt of the "fuck off we're full" crowd aways from us.
grazorblade said:
4) conversely did the success of your club at producing roos or finishing high on the nsl table make u feel more aussie?
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Again a bit of a yes and no answer.... Having players wearing the Socceroos shirt certainly brought a huge amount of pride to the club and our supporters but didn't really make any link for or against how I fealt about my connection with Australia... I would support the Socceroos even if there were no South Melbourne players attached to the squad, supporting the national team is a default position... you don't get to choose, in my opinion..
 
grazorblade said:
yeah sorry if the question is strange I can explain the motivation for it

when I found out I had a permanent job in England and would eventually be an English citizen I started looking into the incredible history of achievements of England - from the literature, to the glorious revolution and how they got the supremecy of the parliament without violence, william wilberforce and the evangelicals/quakers anti slavery movement, the incredible music history, the scientists they produced, inventing my fave sports etc etc.
Anyway I was prepping myself to become English since I'm gonna be here forever (I'll always be aussie too of course!). When I found out about the visa and also the degree of anger at immigrants for "not assimilating" the constant unwelcoming messages etc, despite everyone I knew personally being nice and friendly I noticed that I started feeling "more aussie" playing aussie music in the house a lot, getting more into aussie sports, aussie tv shows, making aussie food, aussie holidays etc. Obviously its not exactly the world's biggest injustice, but forking up 30k pounds for example isn't nothing either!

I read some research on what the literature calls "heavy handed assimilation policies" and it seems the evidence shows they backfire. Not already are they ethically a bit dodgy, causing distress to migrant communities, but they are apparently self defeating on their stated goals because they cause less patriotism to their new country and more patriotism to the country they came from. I was like "huh, that seems to be what's happening to me". I guess patriotism is falling in love and if you try and force someone to fall in love

Anyway, I was wondering if something similar happened with the club identity policy and the beginning of the a league - can't think of a better example of a "heavy handed assimilation policy" unless you go back further when people were willing to do much more dodgy things. By contrast, the research shows that building aussie football with your migrant community would actually foster a sense of patriotism, contrary to many people's intuitions.

We have always had people play for other countries (viera, johnson, d'arrigo, simunic, seric, didiluca) but it seems harder to get dual nationalists interested these days. There are as many in doubt or defected right now as there have been in that list from our entire history! By contrast Aloisi was willing to cost his career for his shirt and you never hear anyone care about the shirt more than poppa. Still it could be other factors like generational and cultural changes in australia. Still, it made me wonder if the club identity policy and the exclusion of migrant clubs play a role. After all, if you tell people that these clubs aren't welcome and aren't aussie, some are going to internalize that message
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welcome to the "effnikz" club ..... now add a bunch of poms daily telling you to go back to your own country and we may as well be cousins.... lol
 
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