snowbells
From my understanding, people who are over proud about their origins often haven't done much to be proud of themselves!! Why would you be proud about your freakin' breed!?!
As I have said on another thread, my grandfather would not give up his foreign passport for thirty years. Even though he finally applied for a British passport after a disaster at the British border after a holiday to Malta, he always saw himself as his nationality, not a Brit.
His nationality and origins were incredibly important to him. He had fought for his country, and his father had died for for its unsuccessful liberation. He was proud to be a son of his country; it was a huge part of his identity and its history had carved his life and his personality and perspective into the shape it was, and I have inherited quite a lot of that outlook. When he died, we carried his coffin into the church covered in the flag of his country; it is what he wanted, even though he hadn't lived there for sixty years.
And because of that, I understand why people are proud of their origins. I am proud to have a grandfather who fought in horrendous conditions for the freedom of his country. I am proud to have a great grandfather that even when he was being told to kneel to be shot in the back of the head in a dark cellar still had the bollocks to proclaim freedom for his country.
But, equally, I am aware that there are legal realities if you wish to live permanently in another state. One day, that "holiday to Malta" may happen. Okay, it might not be a holiday, it will probably have nothing to do with Malta, but the same situation may arise in some way.
At the end of the day, citizenship denotes a vital legal bond between state and citizen. It is the relationship between individual and state; it's the declaration of state duty to an individual and state jurisdiction over and individual. You can see how important citizenship is by looking at how serious statelessness is (ie. no citizenship of anywhere) -- we had to create international treaties back in the 1950s just to give stateless people some basic rights.
I really don't like the idea that one should somehow "deserve" citizenship. For fear of invoking Godwin, I don't want to mention that a certain ideological movement in Germany did not believe some people deserved German citizenship, even though they had been born in the country and so had their ancestors going back generations.
And the question needs to be asked ... if we are talking about deserving, to live in England, am I? I am not a doctor or a nurse. I'm not an engineer. I gave up teaching and will never return to it. I can't build a house or purify water. If there was a zombie apocalypse, the only skills I can provide is cooking, cleaning, growing veg and a vast knowledge of historical political crises.
I guess because of my family background, nosuchnumber, I am very alert to issues of citizenship, rights, obligations, and how quickly those can change. You must always try to protect yourself because you cannot rely on others do that for you. You cannot rely on the goodwill of others.
Look at the advice constantly given to women on the relationships board: women who are living with partners with children in homes they don't own and are facing poverty if the relationship breaks down and posters say ... you have no rights because you are not married.
Citizenship is very similar. Without it, you are at the mercy of the whims people you cannot even vote for.