What do you consider your nationality to be?

[AntiFlag]

Do you think it’s where you’re born? Or your parentage? Or your grandparentage?

For example, if you were born in Scotland, but your mum was Russian and your dad Venezuelan, what would you class yourself as?

Someone I know says they’re Irish because they have an Irish grandparent, but how far do you got back? AIBU to think only a couple of generations defines your nationality? Or do you think it can be longer?

And how much does it mean to you? I’m generally curious, I live in a place where locals are very fierce about their roots and I am a bit of a mongrol from my heritage and it’s never really bothered me, I just say ‘British’ because I was born and live here.

Scottish

Good question OP. I've got a Welsh parent, an English parent, a British passport, the right to live in France, and Canadian citizenship. Suppose I think of myself as British.

[quote ConstantlySeekingHappiness]@MurielSpriggs

Can I ask, why do you consider yourself Irish if you weren’t born there, didn’t grow up there, and neither parent is Irish?[/quote]
I know some countries,Portugal for instance,use the principle of Jus sanguinis to access nationality.This means that they go by decent,rather than being born in Portugal.Many countries allow you to gain nationality through parents or grandparents but Portugal go a step further.If your parents register your birth with the Portuguese consulate in your country of birth,it doesn’t matter how far back it goes,you will be classed as Portuguese.An example, your great great grandfather was born in Portugal but moved to England.When he had a child,he registered them and when they had a child they registered them and so forth.They base their nationality by lineage as well as birth.

I'm English. English parents, English grandparents, English great grandparents before that. Born in England.
If I'm asked I'm definitely English, not British, although of course my passport is British.

I consider myself to be British. My Mum is English, my Dad is Welsh and I live in England.

@SimonJT

British, nationality is not related to ethnicity.

This. Nationality is just about what passport you have.

Place of birth is also misleading - your mother could have given birth on holiday, for example.

It's different to ethnicity (your genetics), heritage (the culture you grew up in) and it's different to identity (how you actually feel - which culture actually resonates with you).

Scottish, nationally and ethnically.

@AntiFlag
I think maybe you mean ethnicity? I’m not sure. According to Wikipedia, “membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art or physical appearance. Moreover, ethnic groups are also defined by genetics.[4][5][6] Ethnic groups often continue to speak related languages.” So there are your possible bases for how people define themselves and how they define themselves as part of a group. Most people who have answered this relate with at least one or more of the things listed above.

Nationality, on the other hand, is membership in a nation, which at this point is usually who issues your passport, where you are a “citizen” of. Some ethnic groups want to be nations and so they rebel against larger nations they’re within (the Basque in Spain), or are located within nations that give them some but not total rights (American Indians in the United States).

I grew up in England with English parents and am now a naturalised citizen of Iceland living in Iceland. I still consider myself English, although I also consider myself a settled and integrated immigrant. The dual citizenship is more of an administrative thing. So for me it's about where I grew up and family of origin and things like the fact that although I'm fluent in Icelandic, it will never be as strong as my English. But I think it's a very individual thing.

My kids say they are Icelandic (born here, Icelandic father, bilingual), although they are young (6 and 4) so obviously haven't really thought about their identities in any great detail the way they might as they get older.

British - one English parent, one Scottish parent. I have Irish heritage on both sides of my family but I wouldn’t consider myself Irish

British.
Dad English, mum Norwegian.

I am English. I've traced my maternal family line back to 1500s and 100% English. Paternal line English and Irish.

My parents are irish but both lived in England here from their teenage years.

I am aware my ethnicity is Irish but I would never call myself irish in a million years. I consider myself British through and through.

English.

I had a conversation about this with a friend once and she believed that wherever a child is born is their nationality so if you gave birth on holiday in Spain for example, your child would be Spanish even if both parents are British/American whatever.

I didn’t agree with her but couldn’t articulate why. Maybe I’m wrong and that country has to issue a passport but I can’t imagine that would be the case.

I'm British.

I’m English. I’m Irish enough (through family) for an Irish passport and to never identify as British but I’d feel like a fraud (or an American) to say I was Irish when was born and raised elsewhere.

Not all countries issue passports automatically for those born on their territories, that’s for sure. Their parents need to meet certain requirements first, in most cases.

I consider myself Spanish, I was born and raised in Spain and I have a Spanish passport.
However I was born to immigrant parents from a small country in Eastern Europe, so I am ‘genetically’ from that country, and I also hold nationality there - both EU so not a big difference legally. I’m white European so no difference ethnicity-wise either.

I’m Spanish because that’s all I’ve ever known - we weren’t raised in our parents’ traditional culture, as they moved to Spain when they were mere teenagers themselves. We cooked Spanish food at home, had Spanish friends and almost all our relatives lived in Spain too. I identify 100% with the Spanish culture because it’s the only one I was raised in. If I had to choose a second it would be British, because I moved here at 15 and spent all my formative years in a British environment and family.

I hate going to visit my parents’ country because everyone there says welcome home and asks if I’ve missed ‘my people’

I'd say nationality is whatever your passport says, and that people consider themselves from wherever they grew up, wherever they spent their formative years.

Having parents or grandparents from a different county adds another identity, but I doubt you'd think of yourself as 'from' there.

A different matter are the children of an established 'diaspora', who consider themselves as 'from the mother country' despite not having set foot there and the connection going back generations in some cases. Say Greek Ukranians.

It was only after the second world war ended, that people of British descent stopped thinking of Britain as being 'the mother country', to whom they owed allegiance, and to which they belonged.

Wellington said if the cat has kittens in the oven, it doesn't make them biscuits.

I agree

Scottish

I have some Danish ancestry too though,

@LunaBunaTuna

I had a conversation about this with a friend once and she believed that wherever a child is born is their nationality so if you gave birth on holiday in Spain for example, your child would be Spanish even if both parents are British/American whatever.

I didn’t agree with her but couldn’t articulate why. Maybe I’m wrong and that country has to issue a passport but I can’t imagine that would be the case.

My child born in Germany has no claim to German nationality whatsoever, and no longer can live there since we've left the EU.

I'm Scottish, both parents and families as far back as we know are Scottish.

I don't regard myself as British.

Dh is half Irish and was born in NI. He and our 3 dc have Irish passports as well as British. We both want our dc to have access to freedom of movement in Europe.

All dc regard themselves as Scottish even though they're quarter Irish and quarter German. They are all fluent in Scottish Gaelic and this is their primary cultural reference.

DH was born in the UK, but his heart is in NZ.