Homeland sweet Homeland...

I remember several years ago, once I read this poem by a German poet that:
"There is no sign on any map for the homeland of a man, his homeland is in the hearts of those who love him"...
It sounded so beautiful but is it really true, I mean, is it possible that we simply neglect all the cultural, social and historical ties of an individual to a certain country claiming that his homeland is just where his beloved ones are?...

Looking up the word "homeland" in Wikipedia, we come up with:
"A homeland (rel. country of origin and native land) is the concept of the territory (cultural geography) to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, it simply connotes the country of one's origin.
When used as a proper noun, the word, as well as its cognates in other languages (ie. Heimatland in German) often have ethnic nationalist connotations."

As it is seen, there are some key words associated with the concept of "homeland", words such as: territory, cultural geography, country of origin, national identity and many more...

In the world that we live in, considering all the complicated cross cultural relations of the nations along with other contemporary issues of globalization, international culture of the world, immigrations, wars, refugees, etc. Is it really true to see the homeland as "country of origin", if yes, what is this "origin" for a child that was born in the United Kingdom for instance from Indian parents?
Do we here define the origin based on blood-relations or the country that the child was born and went school in.
Things even get more complicated trying to find the "homeland" of a kid who was born in Canada from an Italian mother and a British father. Parents from different cultures, different languages, with whole different historical backgrounds and even different beliefs.

When it comes to "cultural geography", there are some countries in the world that host different cultures, languages and even different religions inside their territory. There are people living under one flag but they are very different in all aspects of social and cultural life from their fellow countrymen.
The interesting question to me has always been that, Do they consider their homeland as the country that they currently live in or do they have stronger ties with their sub-territorial ethnic community?

Following the roots of the homeland for an individual, things even get very complicated when it has to be dealt with "National Identity"...
I may go through these questions again in later posts...



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[Photo: "Road" (Raah in Persian), courtesy of Mr. Kuresh Anbari, 2006]