Do people genuinely feel they are a 'European Citizen'? And why?

[mrsvilliers]

Genuinely interested and not having a dig at anybody. This has come up on my social media a lot recently and culminated today in DM informing me she had managed to dredge up an Irish relative from somewhere which meant she could apply for an Irish passport. When I asked her why she informed me she was a European citizen and want to remain one. Fair enough but I am genuinely baffled. I speak two European languages, have travelled, worked and lived extensively in Europe and would never refer to myself as a European citizen. European yes, in that I am not African or Asian or North/South American etc but not in reference to being a citizen. Honestly genuinely interested and can't ask on social media as would get flayed!!

I don't know why some people can't still feel European as well as British, like me.

Surely feeling European (because of geography, links, work, friends and family) is not taken away because you don't belong to a political body like the EU or have some words on your passport?

Nobody is saying you must stop feeling European because we aren't in the EU, there not the same thing IMO.

Yes, I identify as European and value my EU citizenship highly, even though I've never lived outside Great Britain. I would be getting dual nationality with another EU country if I could. DH has remembered his grandmother was born in Ireland, but I can't claim to belong to anywhere else.

I remember once having travelled for several months and eventually arriving overland at the Russia/Finland border on my way home and seeing the EU flag flying. I burst into tears at the feeling of coming home, even though I'd never been to Finland before.

Asprilla11 I agree. We'll still be in Europe once we've left the EU. It was noticeable how "leaving Europe" was mentioned a lot in some of the campaigning, when the EU isn't the same thing.

Am a Brit living in an EU country with a DH and DS from that country and I feel equally British and an EU citizen. Totally gutted by the result and as soon as I can face the bureaucratic joys involved I will be applying for citizenship in my host country. My EU citizenship enabled me to feel I belonged in my current country and I suddenly feel like a foreigner, despite speaking the language fluently and having a family there.

I don't know why some people can't still feel European as well as British, like me.

Surely feeling European (because of geography, links, work, friends and family) is not taken away because you don't belong to a political body like the EU or have some words on your passport?

Nobody is saying you must stop feeling European because we aren't in the EU, there not the same thing IMO.

Flags are powerful things.

I have been places and seen the EU flag, and felt a since of pride because its MY flag. Just as much as the British one. Or the English one.

As I say, I am only just beginning to appreciate that this is not normal for a Brit to think / feel unfortunately.

I'm English and have never felt European.

Agree re the flags red. I love being European. There are many hard things involved in integrating into a new country and knowing you have citizenship under the EU flag gives confidence, comfort and a sense of identity. I have been out of the U.K. for a long time now and no longer feel wholly British in the way my friends who have never moved away do. Nor however do I feel like a national of my host country and not will that ever happen. So being an EU citizen was the way I bridged this gap and it gave me a legitimate feeling of having an international identity. It's really hard to explain but I know lots of people in the same situation feel the same way.

I'm a citizen because I'm a citizen of a country in the EU. It's pretty straightforward.

I am European because I am a citizen of a country (UK) that is part of the European region.

Also, on a macro level the EU has been a bulwark against certain dodgy US, Chinese, Russian ideals. All of us are anti-death penalty, for example, and our pharmaceuticals can no longer be used in US executions. This has reduced executions in the USA, and strengthened anti death penalty groups.

This. I feel European and proud to be where I am from too. My DD has three citizenships. Proud of all of them. You can be both! European and British without any problem.

I've always felt European as well. I am Greek, I spent 20 years in the UK without applying for a passport because it seemed superfluous (ha ha, how I'm laughing now!), my children are Greek/German and we now live in France.

Surely feeling European (because of geography, links, work, friends and family) is not taken away because you don't belong to a political body like the EU or have some words on your passport?

In a practical sense, it certainly would be if you no longer had the right to go and relocate to be with your friends and family.

This is a particular issue for my family. My mother may no longer have the right to go and live with either of her children, should she need to be looked after in her old age.

I feel both British and European. I will be very sad to lose my European citizenship.

I have not lived abroad but i value that choice and ease of movement for my children. I once travelled across Europe with a friend who has a passport from a far Eastern country and he got a lot of scrutiny at border checks. (It wasn't about skin colour as my other friend who is British Asian was waved through with barely a glance at her passport).

Politically I feel I have a lot in common with European countries - ie broadly to the left. I think the EU has been good at redistributing money to some of our poorest areas. They value improved workers rights eg maternity rights, working hours. The US by contrast seems a strange and very different attitude/ culture to me.

Yes definitely. I have an English father and my mother was Italian. I have now lived in London for 20 years and English has always been my mother tongue, but the 27 years prior to that (am now 47) were spent mostly in Belgium and a few years in Italy as well (though I was born in Kent).

So yes I am European. British too but definitely European and an EU citizen.

So being an EU citizen was the way I bridged this gap and it gave me a legitimate feeling of having an international identity. It's really hard to explain but I know lots of people in the same situation feel the same way.

^ this - totally. I have been trying to articulate this over the past few days but couldn't. Thank you QoF.

I feel European, I think laws made in Brussels are made by people more like me than those made in Parliament.

Yes, though for me more in a philosophical sense than a practical sense. It is important to me to be European. I am British and English and if I had to pick a dominant identity I suppose it is British. But I live in London and for a long time travelled frequently in Europe for work.

I am also (possibly oddly) really opposed to mindless nationalism to the extent that I find it bizarre to support a football team just because of where they were born and loathe the platitudinous jingoism associated with for example the support of a tennis player because they share one's national citizenship.

I am proud to call myself a European citizen, and English, and Irish! (For the same reasons QoF has stated down thread.)

I have lived in continental Europe for years, my dd was born here and is tri-lingual, and is being educated in two langs other than her native lang, dh has relatives here and I work with Belgian, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish and Czech colleagues.

For weekends we often nip to Germany, the Netherlands or to Paris (where my sil lives). Tbh, in this context, when you can drive without stopping to different countries and use the same currency, the concept of national borders becomes rather insignificant.

I guess I also feel European because I am RC. Every church I pass is "my brand" and I feel comfortable and "at home" with the politics of the EU which was founded on broadly Christian social democratic principles.

And frankly, hasn't the "dog's dinner" that is British domestic politics at the moment, without proper leadership or long-term direction, highlighted the need for a supra-national framework?

I think that's a different thread slingcrump but feel free to start one

Thanks everyone for your comments, it's been really interesting hearing them all. It made me think back to when I did all my travelling for work and with hindsight I think I felt much more of a European citizen then (although I doubt I would have called myself that). But as someone who rarely leaves the UK these days that feeling has disappeared. Which is perhaps giving me a bit more insight into the question.

European because I grew up in the EU.

DH is mainly English, a bit of Scottish and a drop of Swedish.

We're all European somehow.

Yes I feel European. It is an important part of my identity. I have lived and worked in other European countries, learnt European languages at school and many of my friends and colleagues are European. The result makes me very sad and scared for the future.

It is interesting msvilliers. I think if I had only ever lived in the UK and Europe, I'd have been more inclined to vote remain.

Living outside of Europe has massively altered my view of the UK/EU and, although I was unable to vote, I definitely felt that I would vote leave.

I've lived in Japan. We aren't being invited to join some kind of ideal world union, we were asked if we wanted to leave the EU and be out onour own, or stay in a union with our nearest neighbors.

I'm British no, never think of myself as European.