Cyprus-Forum.com

[Sotos]

This is for those foreigners that live permanently in Cyprus. Do you think your children and grandchildren will assimilate and be Cypriots? Do you what this to happen or you want to keep separate?

[Niki]

If that's what they want I'm happy for them to become Cypriot. However the future for them in terms of where they will live at Uni or after is not predictable - after all being in Cyprus opens them up to many different cultures. I guess this is the Europe effect!

I must admit at the moment I cannot see a rosy future for them here as the wages are so low and the Universities are not yet on a par with other countries such as the US or the UK.

[phoenix]

I take it boys would have to do military service before they could consider themselves Cypriot?

[fagash]

This is for those foreigners that live permanently in Cyprus. Do you think your children and grandchildren will assimilate and be Cypriots? Do you what this to happen or you want to keep separate?

I'm a foreigner, born in Cyprus and so is my eldest son.

We both love Cyprus, but we both realise we'll never be regarded as Cypriot.

Why should we?

[anastasiaC]

why is it so important?
im of cypriot background but because I grew up in Australia I always felt an outsider and most Cypriots treated me as one...i dont think its so important to be regarded as a cypriot.....

[twinkle]

I am a Cypriot born in the UK. I didn't belong in the UK and was seen as a foreigner and when I moved here I was seen as a foreigner (A Bubble and a Charlie). It's a sorry state of affairs when you can not call a place home. Hence English/Cypriot. The foreigner born here will have the same problem. Not belonging anywhere.

[Nikitas]

If you want to belong then you got to work at it. I have been living in Greece for 33 years and often come across foreign residents who like to indulge in a sport known as "Greek bashing" which is a mix of whining about things, and also constantly comparing with other countries. Sounds llike the situation in Cyprus for foreigners.

When i ask these people certain questions like: do you read a local paper? listen to local radio? ever been to a meeting of your local council? Know the differences between orthodoxy and catholicism? the whining stops. Most of them are lotus eaters who came here for the sun and never really got involved with the problems of the place.

Language skills matter. Being of Greek origin and speaking the language with a foreign accent will mark you worse than a total foreigner. Something I did not suffer because I was stubborn and kept up my Greek language all through my secondary school years in England. I got my Modern Greek O and A levels. No one dares call me charlie because they will receive a string of abuse in perfect high Greek. The mainland Greek equivalent to charlie is brooklis, used mostly for Greek Americans who must have landed in Brooklyn in the old days.

If the choice is to remain apart, a foreigner who does not get involved then you canntot whine about the place. If you decide to take the plunge then you have to get involved in the problems and daily life. Seems that the decision to go either way is the tough one.

[twinkle]

Nikitas I appreciate your view and respect your answer. However, you may intergrate and mix and keep up to scratch with the surroundings around you, fact is though the 'pure' native will always assimilate that you are not the same as them and are a foreigner. The fact we were born abroad, moved away or whatever will always be a stigma.

[free_cyprus]

This is for those foreigners that live permanently in Cyprus. Do you think your children and grandchildren will assimilate and be Cypriots? Do you what this to happen or you want to keep separate?

that is an amazing thread you put here reagrding foreigners but what i want to know is this, cyprus is full of foreigners as it is they are called turks, and greeks, now if you see anyone in cyprus that is not turkish or greek, and he or she is a cypriot like me please let me know becouse im looking for my cypriot friends,

[Sega]

Do you know what's funny?

I am a Greek-Cypriot born in the UK (like many) and now I live in Cyprus.

Before the mass Russian-Ponte and European migration I was considered a foreigner, even though both parents (and all eight great-grand-parents) are born in Cyprus. But now that there is all these foreigner people I am now considered Cypriot, this is great.

However, the is always a slight difference in mentality, but I guess is normal when comming from a different country.