Balkan Diaspora who married a "local" but still feel very attached to your home country: What are your experiences?

Posted by PreWiBa@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 10 comments

Its normal to not limit yourself in dating and marriage to "your own", sometimes people in diaspora even make a conscious effort to be around people with a different background.

A lot of these people aren't that attached to their homeland, at least from my experience, so its not that much of a deal for them to be with an American, German, French etc...

But for those of you who got into such relationships and still feel very attached to your culture, home country: How do you balance and not end up overburdening your partner? How did you react if your SO actually doesn't really like your home country? What are your plans if you have children? What was your experience in general and what are the biggest challenges in your opinion?

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Heyonit@reddit

I’m African American, and my bf is Serbian born and raised there. I absolutely love that he isn’t thrilled about just cutting off all ties with his home country. 😂 and he doesnt mind letting me know that. I also would never in my life ask him to. In my opinion you should embrace your partners culture or at least be willing to learn about it. I’ve seen too many videos where if the man or woman is from the west, they tend to not embrace where their partners from really. It’s so shocking to me.

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ab3lla@reddit

i’m sorry but as someone born and raised in the west i don’t think i could ever marry someone from back home, or anyone that grew up in the balkans. our mentalities and cultures are very different, even if we are the same ethnicity. when i go back home i feel like an outsider.

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ilovemangos3@reddit

How are your mentalities different?

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Humble-Bear@reddit

Probably values personal responsibility, honesty, integrity, fairness and justice. Things severely lacking in the balkans unfortunately.

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IAmTheForce90@reddit

I’m not a fan. American men all the way

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YumFreeCookies@reddit

I live outside the Balkans now and married someone local here. He’s grown to also love my home country and we visit almost every year! He’s even been learning the language!

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Substratas@reddit

Its normal to not limit yourself in dating and marriage to "your own", sometimes people in diaspora even make a conscious effort to be around people with a different background.

A lot of these people aren't that attached to their homeland, at least from my experience, so its not that much of a deal for them to be with an American, German, French etc...

I’m married to a Swede and I’m very attached to Albania. The experiences are perfectly fine.

From my experience, the reason why some Balkaners do not want to socialize with their compatriots is not because they’re not attached to their countries, but because most Balkan immigrants in Northern / Western Europe tend to be more narrow-minded in general so the ”community” you meet here is nothing like the people you’re surrounded by back home.

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