Family without common nationality

[guardianangel79]

Do you think it is really possible for a multinational family (particularly the nuclear family) not to have a common nationality? Given that the family is the smallest social unit in a country, surely all its members should belong to the state, no? Any views on this would be gratefully received.

My DH and DSs are one nationality, I am another, and DDs are dual nationals, so yes.

If all have different nationalities, no. Surely there must be some overlap though?

Dh and I have different nationalities and dc have/will have both. However, dh is Japanese, and they don't recognise dual nationality there for adults. You have to pick. We'll deal with that when we get there but the one thing I really don't want to end up with is siblings with different nationalities. I have a friend who this happened to and for some reason it makes me really :(

"Belong to the state"? I really don't like the idea of anyone belonging to the State.

Are you meaning all being residents of the same state or that they all have the same legal nationality? I can see the argument for the former, when kids are young. The children of the family cannot be expected to stay in one country upon adulthood though - moving for jobs/love/life happens and you just have to work around it if you want to remain emotionally close when not physically close.

Arguing they all must have the same legal nationality is a bit silly to me though and sounds like xenophobic rhetoric - that we must stick to marrying and creating families with our own nationality (would make it hard for those with multiple legal nationalities). Gaining a new nationality is not possible for all residents (it is very difficult, expensive, and legally impossible some times) and, frankly, my having a different nationality to my husband or my children (who have their father's and a right to mine when they are older if they so choose) has made no difference in our family life - my nationality only seems to come up when strangers want to play 'what your accent' bingo.

It's more than possible, it happens all the time.

My mother had Indian nationality for years - eventually changed it to British, but more from convenience than anything else (avoided lots of visa problems). My partner currently has dual nationality - used to have triple - and his possession of a US passport (he was born there) is no issue at all.