Former empire syndrome

I just returned from a week's holiday in the Baltic countries; I'd never been to Latvia, although the other two countries and their languages are relatively familiar to me. I do enjoy travelling! I suppose technically, as an Englishman, I've been 'travelling' ever since I started working abroad in 1990, but after having lived in Poland for so long, even going back to England feels like travelling abroad. Ever since I was a child I knew that my future lay abroad, and I have no plans to return to England - unless I was offered a job there, whose parameters would be so unreal that I don't even bother imagining it in any detail. (A senior professorship, for example. :) )

I have always had a sympathy for the smaller countries in Europe, the ones which don't suffer under the burden of some great imperial history which they have to remind themselves of time and again. The larger nations - the English, the French, the Poles, the Spanish - seem to have a certain element of their cultures which reflects a common psychological complex; I call this the 'former empire syndrome.' They place a very great deal of emphasis on their history, their languages, how lucky other foreigners are to be living in their countries, etc. I don't mind nations being proud of their past (although every nation has a dark stain or two somewhere in its history), but it bothers me when the xenophobic and nationalist elements start to emerge in popular culture, and in how ordinary people perceive the rest of the world.

Poland's entry into the European Union was soon followed by the election of a rightist, nationalist-Catholic government whose coalition parties strongly opposed joining the EU; so on one hand, the Poles are glad of the chance to travel and work freely, but on the other hand, a lot of political discourse in this country is rather anti-'Brussels', anti-supposed interference from foreign countries. The Poles' long history of foreign domination, culminating in a period of 123 years when there was no Polish state on the map of Europe, has predisposed them to a suspicion of foreign interference, and a consequent desire to protect their own identity and culture.

As for my own identity and culture, I have never seen being English as a source of automatic pride. It's just one of the things I was born with; like when you play poker, you are given a hand of cards at the beginning, and you have to play with it. Being English for me is like having blue-green eyes and having a tendency to be fat; they're simply something I use in everyday life. I use my eyes to see with, I use being fat to push into and out of crowded buses and trams, and I use being English to work as a teacher and translator. I know intelligent, reasonable and compassionate English people, just as I know such people from Poland, France, Mexico or wherever; just as I know stupid, stubborn and thoughtless English people, Poles, French etc. I have other problems with the English way of life (or at least, the southern-English middle-class way of life which I come from), though, but that's another story. :)

I have often wondered how many people, like me, would choose to live the majority of their life in another country, among foreigners, returning home only occasionally to see family and friends. It has not historically been a 'normal' way of living, to deliberately isolate oneself from one's own culture, language and background. But will it become more common in the future?

The rise of the right-wing government has caused many of my Polish friends abroad, who had originally planned to work there just for a short time, to consider staying abroad permanently. Poland has had many waves of exiles and emigrants in the past, reacting to the political difficulties in the home country; it is a strange and disturbing feeling, at the beginning of the 21st century, to think that it could be happening again.