And not to be misunderstood that I'm denying someone's right to feel however he wishes to feel and that I'm blaming the Italians outside Italy that they aren't faithful to the countries where they were born and raised, I will mention the case with the Croats in Australia.
Most of them come from my part of Croatia so I guess I meet them more frequently than you do, but you probably met those guys too.
Many of them don't speak our language, some don't even understand it. But they feel Croats and support Croatia instead of Australia. And it's flattering. It's good that they preserve that identity, but I am shocked when I see how many of them don't give a damn about Australia. Come on, you were born there, you live there, many times in much better conditions that you would if you're in Croatia. That country is giving so much to you and yet you don't give a damn about that country.
How can one not know language, and yet still perserve his national identity?
Isn't language one of key elements that constitute one's national identity, if not the most crucial element that determines one's identity?
I kinda understand what you are saying, they may
feel Croats, but this only means they possess '
animus' component that forms one's national identity.
Not knowing language means they're missing one of the key '
corpus' components (along with ethnicity, common history, culture) that forms one's national identity.
I'm not arguing their right to feel Croats and support Croatia, i'm simply saying one can hardly keep his identity if he doesn't speak the language (one of the key components).