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ImmigrationProf Blog
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England’s UEFA Euro 2020 Team & Immigration

By immigrationprof

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that England played Italy this weekend in the UEFA Euro 2020. It was a well-matched game, with Italy winning 3-2 on penalties. (Look at me, sounding like I know something about sportsball.)

In the excitement surrounding this event, I spotted this meme:

IMG_5072

I was, naturally, intrigued. And this has led me down a HUGE internet rabbit hole. Let me share my findings: Only one member of England’s 26-member Euro 2020 squad was born abroad–Raheem Sterling (winger, attacking midfielder) was born in Jamaica. The other 25 members of the squad were born in England.

So what else might the above meme refer to? As it turns out:

  • Midfielder Bukayo Saka’s parents are immigrants from Nigeria.
  • Forward Jadon Sancho’s parents are from Trinidad and Tobago.
  • Right-back Kyle Walker’s dad is Jamaican.
  • Left-back Ben Chilwell’s dad is an immigrant from New Zealand.
  • Centre-back Tyrone Mings’ paternal grandparents hail from Barbados.
  • Centre-back Declan Rice was eligible to (and did previously) play for Ireland because of his paternal Irish grandparents.
  • Forward Marcus Rashford’s grandmother was born on Saint Kitts.

So, that’s an additional 7 members of the squad with pretty immediate connections to immigration.

It was only at this point that I realized that the meme only has 11 people in it, but the news coverage indicates a team of 26. Is this even a photo of the English team? Much less the UEFA Euro 2020 team? Y’all I can’t go down that rabbit hole too.

-KitJ

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