Eastern European Countries

5 Times

I do not judge people by their race, nationality or creed but Ireland obviously is a proper racist little country. Most of our parents would be horrified if we acquired a black romantic partner. Can the same be said of our new Eastern European friends. So far, they have a reputation for being good workers, well grounded and of course much better looking than us. Is there a stigma attached to dating them?

mountainyman

No and Thaedydal will lock this NOW

ErinGoBrath

Great post.

I would say there is a massive stigma attached to dating Eastern European living in Ireland.

I dated a girl from the Ukraine who was fantastic looking, great personality super intelligent but I was always a very cautious about her background.

She was working as a contract cleaner however didn't recieve the wages herself. Apparently a guy that 'looked after them' paid them small amounts of money as they needed, was in possession of their passports and was 'apparently' saving their money so they could buy themselves a house back home. They were also not allowed to leave the Dublin area without letting them know.

This sounds to me like a gangster human trafficing setup which I was appalled by, she on the other hand just accepted it and even refered to it on several occasions as 'slavery'. Shocking.

Call it shallow but with a background like you can't help but be cautious about a relationships motives

craichoe

Lest we not forget WE were the human trash that washed into Various countries all over the world, mainly the U.S. and the U.K.

There was stigma attached to marrying a paddy because we were skint.

People .. There are differences between cultures and it is NOT racist to differentiate between them, its just a simple truth ...

People are way too quick to jump the gun and say everything is racist.... ffs .. theres nothing wrong with it, freedom of speech i say, We are not living in China.

Tha Gopher

Check out After Hours, every time a "foreign women vs irish women" debate arises (about twice weekly) some gobsh1te claims that he has went out with Poles, Czechs, Russians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Irish, and that Irish women are sh1t.

Rather impressive seeing as 95% of ex soviet bloc women seemingly come here with their boyfriends.

I dont think theres a stigma, its more that its a simple rarity as they seem to all be in a serious life long relationship by 18 (though we have pulled a few, but they had boyfriends. so beware OP, dose bitchez is hoes yo.....)

mountainyman- eh, thread locked for what exactly? Saying that Irish people are quite racist? In fairness your oul man may have a sly **** to Destinys Child videos but you know he doesnt want you marrying them. All the OP said was that most Irish parents would take a rather *Tony Soprano in the episode where Meadow had the black Jewish boyfriend* view of things in this regard. Which in all honesty is true, my mother once said in relation to my preference for rap music "jaysus, yil be marryin some black girl next"

cmere Rihanna, rar

LegacyUser

I couldn't see myself dating an Eastern European girl because i think we'd be too culturally different. Although I'd much rather date an Eastern European girl than a Nigerian, not being racist but they seem loud, unmannerly and unlady-like..

Nevyn

Not a PI moved to humanities.

wes

Yes parents do seem to have an expectation on the ethnicity (or religion) of ones potential future partner. I have come to the conclusion that the only girl my mother would except is one she would pick herself.... frankly I will not be putting up with such sillyness.

However I am already at the disadvantage of being a child of a imigrant so I would be seen as having a different culture by most people in Ireland in anyways and while I have held onto some things from my mother culture I would fully identify as being Irish and do acknowledge where my parents are from, but that is not who I am.

So I can fully emphatise with the Eastern Europeans who are coming over and of course would have no problem dating a eastern european Woman if I found her attractive. I personally would find the idea of turning down a lovely young lady based soley on her ethnicity and what my firends or family may think to be very silly and the product of a bygone era.

InFront

I dont know if Id agree with you entirely Wes, although most of what you say there is true.
Social pressures do exist, coming from the individual, from his circle of friends, from his family, his community and his society, to adapt to the norms of his background, and 'partner up with' (for want of a better term) a girl of his own ethnicity/ religion/ heritage. And the same for a girl.

Choice of who to take as a wife, or a husband, is an intensely personal one, which is what makes the deciphering of a social pattern based on interracial marriages and families so impossible.
Is it the sign of a healthy society to see a white man holding hands with a black woman?
Is it the sign of a healthy society to see a second generation irish family of Pakistani origin speaking Urdu in the street?
The answer is probably both. People, generally speaking, shouldn't have to feel they must marry within their culture, or outside their culture.
Should a person actively choose to marry within their own culture, must it be construed as racism or racial or religious snobbery? there seems to be an unspoken rule that it is either 'okay for foreigners' or perhaps sometimes 'expected' of foreigners. For many people, myself included, who although Irish on paper 'look foreign', this is a grey area in comparison to more recent members of the Irish immigrant community. Are we Irish? Are we Asian/ African/ (insert nationality here)? Leaving aside for a minute the religious requirements there may be, it seems to me somehow less appropriate for a man with an Irish accent who has gone through the Irish educational system, and is involved in his community to search out a wife of his own ethnicity.
Is it always racism? Or are we so caught up in trying not to be racist that we are afraid to admit there might be something to benefit for society from "dating" girls (or men) from your own background?

Of course there is also the deeper, psychological element to this, the instinctive desire to marry one whom you can identify with. Someone else might remember a study that was done amongst sheep where sheep tend to breed with animals that are physically similar to themselves with regard to breed and type.

It's a complicated subject, but I dont think we can sweep it all up as wrong that people should choose to marry within their own culture.

Stigma attached to an Irishman marrying an Asian/ eastern european etc is a mirror of the tribalism that I feel exists here as strongly as within the immigrant communities to Ireland, which from what I see tends to me much more intense than most of the native (Germanic) European societies.

Raekwon

I don't really think that there is that much of a stigma in dating an eastern european. The only barrier I see is with communication, but if the person you are dating has perfect English then it's not a problem.

For the record, I have been going out with a Czech girl for nearly two years and it doesn't bother me one bit where she is from, she could be from Outer Mongolia for all it matters to me.

SmoothyG

I think trying to generalise the whole population is always going to lead to inaccuracies. As time rolls on, and newer generations have different issues to deal with then older generations will be left out of the loop. At the end of the day, show me a country where all the old people love foriegners!! We have a great country, the opportunities here for everyone are so vast that we are spoilt for choice as to what to do with our lives. Our government decided on our behalf that we will take in immegrants from all over, and we have helped them out a lot. Expecting every single last one of us to be happy about it is too much to ask. I'm happy with an overwhelming majority of irish who welcome all to our country. The few racists left will die out in time, thats all that can be done.

Where i do have a huge problem is with self segregation. Generating comuntities of ex pats,from poland mainly, and cutting off the irish within our own country!! Polish masses, polish shops where all the signs are in polish!! did ye ever think that I might want to try polish goods?
We can see the long term results of self segregation in England, Birmingham, Bradford are prime examples of where a person can grow up, with a brittish passport, and never attend school or participate in their community at all. I have even met people that have lived in England all their lives and can barely speak English, But thier hindu is perfect!

The overwhelming Majority of irish welcome our eastern European cousins, and are delighted that we can help out, why are we being pushed aside?

Budd

You just made a racist judgment on Irish people and on Eastern Europeans in your statement. You can't call one place a racist nation and you can't say that another race are good workers.

Dades

Budd wrote:

You can't call one place a racist nation and you can't say that another race are good workers.

He can and he did. Seriously get off your high horse and let people have a discussion.

Karl Hungus

craichoe wrote:

Lest we not forget WE were the human trash that washed into Various countries all over the world, mainly the U.S. and the U.K.

No we weren't. "We" as you put it, were the ones who stayed home. Thus why we're living here and in Boston right now.