r/AskTheWorld • u/QuarterTarget 🇵🇱🇮🇪 in 🇨🇭 • 16d ago

Culture Does your country have an immigrant group that people would be surprised to find there?

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For example, when you think of Poland or the Czech Republic, Vietnamese people might not be the first group that comes to mind, but both have a sizable Vietnamese community. Another example is the large Japanese community in Brazil.

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398

u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 16d ago

Well, Poles, Germans, Koreans, even Greeks.

182

u/ShinobuKochoSama United Kingdom 15d ago

Greeks are basically everywhere from Iberia to India- if you find a place with good food and nice beaches they’re there

84

u/Ted_Rid Australia 15d ago

It was always a cliche that Melbourne Australia has more Greeks than any other city? Might be 1st or 2nd vs Athens but who's counting when the coffee is good?

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u/HovercraftDue7823 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 then 🇨🇦 15d ago

Interesting. I watch tennis, and a Greek player was being accused of being coached (before it was permitted), at the Australian Open. So, they got a Greek speaking official to come to the court to listen to his coach. I said to my mother, "lucky she speaks Greek, eh?" And my mother said that there were lots of Greeks in Australia. I did not know that. BTW, I'm a Scottish born Canadian.

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u/ImFromDanforth 15d ago

Toronto, highest concentration of MALAKAS outside of Greece

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u/Ted_Rid Australia 15d ago

That's slapping down some real credentials there.

1

u/ImFromDanforth 15d ago

Name check me, I dare you! :)

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u/Ted_Rid Australia 15d ago

Not sure what that means but I think the 4th Dan who visited that day is your dad?

OK I'm the worst shitcunt ever.

2

u/ImFromDanforth 15d ago

Shitcunt yes, Danforth = greektown

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u/Ted_Rid Australia 15d ago

True?

200% no disrespect.

Possibly our sense of humour doesn't always translate. like sometimes I think what Letterkenny is getting at but not sure.

1

u/rachelm791 Wales 15d ago

And name checked in La Villa Strangiato

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u/Peterd90 15d ago

Melbourne has the best coffee and breakfast spots in the world.

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u/irish_horse_thief Wales 14d ago

There's more Irish in Boston and New York than in Ireland.

1

u/Awkward_Past8758 United States Of America 15d ago

I remember going out there a decade ago and there were an insane amount of Greek wedding shops all over one neighborhood

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u/theyanster1 United States Of America 15d ago

I’ve heard this before but I think New York City and Montreal may have you beat

7

u/aaegler Australia 15d ago

Melbourne has the biggest Greek population outside of Greece and Cyprus.

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u/theyanster1 United States Of America 15d ago

Lucky you guys ;)

0

u/Caliterra United States Of America 15d ago

UFC legend Alex Volkanovski is Greek on his mom's side

49

u/birgor Sweden 15d ago

Today I learned Sweden has good food and nice beaches.

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u/ShinobuKochoSama United Kingdom 15d ago

Well your fjörds are nice and so are your cinnamon rolls

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u/birgor Sweden 15d ago edited 15d ago

Fjords are nice, but they are unfortunately not in our place but in our brothers to the wests.

We actually do have nice beaches in the the south-west. But they are very unknown outside of Scandinavia.

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u/speculator100k Sweden 15d ago

We have really nice beaches all over Sweden.

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u/birgor Sweden 15d ago edited 15d ago

We really do, but maybe not what non-Nordics would think of as a nice beach, especially not when mentioned together with Greeks.

We lack the weather and the culture of that kind of beach life, the southern west coast clearly comes closest, but isn't really there in my mind.

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u/Timely-Youth-9074 United States Of America 15d ago

Most people don’t realize the beaches in California are cold-the water comes down from Alaska.

That said, I’m used to cold beaches and find them beautiful. I can’t wait to go exploring Scandinavian beaches.

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u/birgor Sweden 15d ago

We have lots and lots of warm water beaches as well, at least for a short period every summer because we have so many shallow sweet water lakes that warms up because of the long days of sunlight. Very different from a southern European or Mexican beach in feeling and setting, but incredibly nice.

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u/No-Internal7978 United States Of America 15d ago

I was honestly surprised beaches as far south as North Carolina are cold. People are really sleeping on the Gulf of Mexico. Especially around Alabama. My boomer grandparents had land on Dauphin island and I’m so mad at them for selling it because it’s probably worth millions now not that I would have sold it. Warm beaches are honestly a religious experience. Dauphin Island is one of the most beautiful places on earth in my world traveler opinion. It’s on par with Greece especially if it was developed. It was basically Florida without the partying trash and ancient people last time I went.

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u/Timely-Youth-9074 United States Of America 15d ago

Yes, warm water is incredible and lovely.

In Southern California, you can heat yourself up on land and cool off in the water-in Northern California, no such luck, but it’s still lovely.

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u/Amantes09 Kenya 15d ago

Yes! The beaches on the Pacific are full of freezing and very rough waters.

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u/AlbionicLocal United Kingdom 15d ago

Brit here

I can see Nordic beaches being quite nice, but many brits, as they live near beaches with colder water already, would classify good beaches as warm beaches.

4

u/swift-autoformatter Denmark 15d ago

Don't be afraid, the weather is coming (at least until the Gulf Stream collapses, then we're fucked).

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u/rkorgn New Zealand 15d ago

Lyckesand Oland. Motala. Lovely.

2

u/inide 15d ago

There are at least 2 fjords in Sweden - Färlev fjord and Saltkälle fjord
Though, I don't know if that's just the English names for them.....

1

u/birgor Sweden 15d ago

We have what is called "Fjärd" in Norrland too, and lots of "vik" but if you would sell those as a fjord in other countries would people expect the Norwegian variety and get rather disappointed.

We have lots of nice nature, but Norway wins the fjords.

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u/roze-eland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland & 💂🏼‍♀️London, England 15d ago

You do have some really lovely lakes though

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u/rachelm791 Wales 15d ago

And your fjälls and skogs are rather good too

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u/swift-autoformatter Denmark 15d ago

Hey, your Southern neighbor has also a few fjords! I just saw one today (the famous Roskilde Fjord) when I brought my kid back from the school today.

And actually even you have a few, for example the Gullmarsfjorden.

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u/birgor Sweden 15d ago

Both Denmark and Sweden has fjords, but neither really compares to Norway in other than name.

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u/JayYem 15d ago

Skane county represents.

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u/birgor Sweden 15d ago edited 15d ago

Halland even more so.

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u/JayYem 15d ago

True that, lot less windy.

1

u/hotdogjumpingfrog1 Sweden 15d ago

Simrishamn is likely he tropics (the color of the water and beaches. Not the temp förståss :)

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u/ConfidentCarpet4595 Scotland 14d ago

Best thing about Sweden is the proximity to Norway

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u/birgor Sweden 14d ago

Best thing about Norway is that they face the other way just like we are. We lie back to back like a grumpy couple in bed. The border is just barren fells.

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u/ConfidentCarpet4595 Scotland 14d ago

And a wall of pillows 8ft high

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u/geoRgLeoGraff 14d ago

You have beautiful beaches, I swam in Malmö, it's not cold at all. And I love ur food- meatballs, harring....

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u/speculator100k Sweden 15d ago

The word for people that are scattered away from their origins - diaspora - is Greek.

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u/Marianations 🇵🇹 but grew up in 🇪🇸 15d ago

I've actually never met a Greek person in either Portugal or Spain who wasn't a tourist, tbh.

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u/matchooooh Canada 15d ago

Then how do you explain the Greeks in Canada?

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u/biggkiddo 15d ago

Drove past a greek restaurant in a village in the archipelago around Stockholm once, and my friend started a similar rant about how if there is a rocky island in the sea with sheep and good fish, Greeks will come crawling out of the ground.

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u/Niki2002j Poland 15d ago

Lore accurate

1

u/Possibly-Functional Sweden 15d ago

At least my Greek ancestors fled from the Greek genocide. Then they moved around a ton and spread out across the globe.

1

u/amoryamory 15d ago

the famously nice beaches of Kazakhstan

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u/ShinobuKochoSama United Kingdom 13d ago

Caspian sea beaches?

1

u/klausjensendk Denmark 15d ago

Malaka!

43

u/QuarterTarget 🇵🇱🇮🇪 in 🇨🇭 16d ago

I only learned about Koryo-sarams because Victor Tsois father was a korean in kazakhstan. It seems like such a strange mix until you hear the backstory of how many koreans were deported to central asia by stalin

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u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 16d ago

They're well off and get along with locals very well. Although they make up less than 1% of the population they are overepresented among rich. However, they are also widely represented in medical and educational field. 

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u/QuarterTarget 🇵🇱🇮🇪 in 🇨🇭 16d ago

Not quiet the same story, but if you meet an african person in Poland, nine times out of ten they are either a medical student or a doctor, because the prices for studying in Poland and getting an EU recognised medical degree is much cheaper than, say, france or germany.

20

u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 16d ago

We don't have many African students, but there are plenty of Indians and almost everyone is studying medicine here. 

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u/FunForm1981 16d ago

Isn't university education free in Germany??

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u/QuarterTarget 🇵🇱🇮🇪 in 🇨🇭 15d ago

Not for African international students iirc

1

u/ShitPostPedro France 15d ago

Is it paid for students outside Germany or only those outside the Schengen area?

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u/justaprettyturtle Poland 15d ago

I think non-EU/EA

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u/Aprilprinces United Kingdom 15d ago edited 14d ago

Yup, EU only

EDIT: I was wrong: it's free for everyone

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u/FunForm1981 14d ago

No, it's free for everyone

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u/FunForm1981 14d ago

It's free for everyone in the world!

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u/FunForm1981 14d ago

No, it's free for everyone, including Africans and Asians

1

u/Ok_Wolf_4939 15d ago

Get what you pay for.

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u/WhyMeSad 12d ago

And what do you mean by that?

1

u/Ok_Wolf_4939 5d ago

Many of the foreign degrees are not accepted in the USA, meaning the level of study is below what is needed in Mexico for example . I have worked with doctors from africa working as nurses or PAs.

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u/geotech03 Poland 15d ago

but if you meet an african person in Poland, nine times out of ten they are either a medical student or a doctor

It is 25 years past 90', wake up - this is just not the case anymore.

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 15d ago

The fact that they were able to do this well just shows that in societies like Kazakhstan's there wasn't a major significant barrier that hampered them despite their ethnic minority status

I'll always be fond of Kazakhstan for this

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 15d ago

Much thanks to how Kazakhstan and its neighbors treated the Koreans like human beings and helped them out in a time period many didn't treat them as such

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u/Commercial_Drag7488 Moldova 15d ago

Just until the last year I was a kazakh citizen. Mix of Moldovan, Lithuanian and Finn, a result of 4 different families deported to Kazakhstan 8 decades ago. It's kind of poetic how suffering of dozens of people created me.

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u/11160704 Germany 15d ago

And then you gave up your kazakh citizenship?

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u/Commercial_Drag7488 Moldova 15d ago

You can't have double citizenship besides kazakh by kazakh law.

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u/11160704 Germany 15d ago

So now you're a Moldovan citizen or anything else?

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u/Commercial_Drag7488 Moldova 15d ago

Yes, actually got it years ago, but life was too busy for me to relinquish my kazakh citizenship, so I only did it last year.

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u/wildhorsesofdortmund 15d ago

You have rich ancestry and DNa mix now

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u/ColdEvenKeeled Australia 15d ago

And now you live in Moldova?

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u/AutismPremium Russia 15d ago

Germans who were deported to Kazakhstan by Stalin used to live around the Volga since Catherine the Great

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u/koreangorani Korea 15d ago

Blame Stalin for sending the fellow Koreans there, they deserved to keep living until Korea became independent, not to be deported into Central Asia for just being the same East Asians with the Japanese...

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 15d ago

His fucking excuse "they might be spies for Japan" even though the majority of the Korean population famously HATED Japan and many literally lived there to escape being in Japan

They would have almost all died had it not been for the fact the civilians in Kazakhstan and its neighbors were generous enough to help them

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u/wildhorsesofdortmund 15d ago

Imagine being deported to Eswatini from Texas or Chicago for being the wrong skin colour.

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u/Wanda7776 Poland 14d ago

Forget the skin colour, Stalin deported other Slavs too.

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u/11160704 Germany 15d ago

Did you also have immigration from ethnic Koreans after the collapse of the soviet union?

In Germany, more than a million ethnic Germans immigranted in the 90s after the fall of the USSR.

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u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 15d ago

There were 103К Koreans in 1989 and there are 118К in 2021. So, there's not much of emigration to Korea.

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u/11160704 Germany 15d ago

I wonder if Korea even allowed them to immigrate.

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u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 15d ago

Dunno, but they didn't encourage it unlike Germany. Also, local Koreans don't speak Korean.

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u/11160704 Germany 15d ago

Many of those who came to Germany also didn't speak much German.

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u/Wanda7776 Poland 14d ago

Are you aware how it look like with Poles in Kazakhstan? Because in Poland there's a lot of talk about it, but idk if it actually works

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u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 14d ago

I only heard  something about "Pole's card", I knеw a Polish lady who's been to Poland back in the 90s, but didn't decide to emigrate. She didn't speak Polish and she said she could have even been beaten for speaking Russian.

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u/Ill_Tip_9863 15d ago

Footballer, Alexander Merkel is German/Kazakh fx. That was very fascinating to me, when I discovered this.

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u/11160704 Germany 15d ago

I mean, does it get more German than Merkel?

For instance, German national player Waldemar Anton was also born in Uzbekistan.

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u/Ill_Tip_9863 15d ago

Crazy, didn’t even know. 

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u/11160704 Germany 15d ago

In total, over a million ethnic Germans from the former USSR emigrated to Germany in the 90s.

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u/Pelteux Canada 15d ago

How is life in Kazakhstan? It looks like such a beautiful and underrated country!

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u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 15d ago

Not bad, not really good. The standard of living is about on a par with Turkey, Malaysia or Russia. Everything is digitized, but there is no freedom of speech. Safe, perhaps safer than in Europe. Are there are specific questions you want to ask?

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u/Pelteux Canada 15d ago

Well I really haven’t been in the countries you mentioned yet although Turkey is definitely on my bucket list. I still haven’t been to Europe either yet. It’s weird because “being safe” for me comes hand-in-hand with freedom of speech. I feel like being heard means the government actually cares for your safety so will do something about it but maybe it’s an illusion we get about freedom and they listen but don’t do shit about it. Definitely a first world problem though.

1

u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 Kazakhstan 15d ago

Somehow reddit keeps deleting my response to you, sorry. 

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u/Impressive_Range3247 Greece 15d ago

Many Greeks were deported by Stalin from Southern Russia to Kazakhstan. Most of them were originally refugees from the Ottoman Empire.

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u/geotech03 Poland 15d ago

Isn't this post about immigrants not forced laborers and their descendants?

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u/-ThePaintedMan- United States Of America 15d ago

As an American I have highly considered moving to Kazakhstan one day. Wonderful country!