How do you define your nationality?

[Ilikemilkshake]

I got into a discussion with my family and I was asked "If someone were to ask you where you're from, how would you respond?"

I could say I'm English because I was born in England.
I could say I'm British because I was born in Britain.
I could say I'm Scottish because I've lived here for half my life and my dads side of the family is Scottish.
I could at a stretch claim to be Austrian or Russian as my great great grandparents emigrated from there.

Yet all of those feel wrong.
The only time I 'feel' flightly English when I'm watching football.
I never really feel Scottish unless we're talking about Glasgow, in which case I feel Glaswegian. (think of it like someone in New York being a New Yorker)
I only ever feel British during the Olympics or when WW2 comes up.

So I'm at a loss as to how I would answer that question.

Discussion: How do you describe who you are?
Is it where you were born? Where you currently live? Where you have citizenship? Where your ancestors originated?

EDIT: lots of people have mentioned the differences between nationality, ethnicity, heritige etc.. I'm aware of that but having all of those in the title seemed kind of redundant.

 

[Wadders]

Strictly speaking, isn't it whatever it says on your Passport is what you are? But really it's down to the individual and how you feel.

I'm English, and I feel English. My family have been English for generations as far back as my Granddad's mother who was Irish. I could jump on the 'plastic paddy' bandwagon, but I dont feel any connection to Ireland other than a love of Guinness, shared with many people across the plant no doubt.

I'd say its a combination of where you were born, and what nationality your parents are.

 

[purplecactus]

I just say I'm Scottish. Yeah, sure, I was born in England, but I lived there for all of six weeks and have since spent almost 22 years up here. My dad's Scottish born and bred (our clan can be kinda traced back to Vikings, so there's that, which is kinda awesome), and my mum's English.

No one could mistake me for English because of my accent, and I'm only really British on official paperwork.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I'm Scottish.

Born in Scotland, spent all my life in Scotland (outwith holidays of course), everyone in my immediate (and pretty much everyone even in my not so immediate family) are all Scottish.

So yeah, Scottish.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Born in Saskatchewan as a 3rd generation German from an immigrant family, lived in Canada for all my life...

Yeah, I'm Canadian. Sure I have a lot of German blood in me but I'm more Canadian than German. I don't speak German, didn't inherit any German cultural... well, anything... I'm Canadian.

 

[Stasisesque]

I'm British.

My dad's Irish (that is, Eire, not N.I.) born but grew up in the east end of London, and considers himself more of a Londoner than an Irishman.
My mum's English born, Scottish descent.

I don't like claiming to be Irish because I wasn't born there, and I've never been. When asked, I will explain that my dad is Irish so I do have close ties to the Irish, but I am not. I can't really claim to be Scottish as the last pure Scot in my family was my great-grandmother, though I am also proud to be of Scottish descent. I suppose I am more truthfully English, but that denies my Scottish roots too much for my liking. So I am British for my mother's side's sake and my father's adopted-heritage.

I do like having an Irish dad, though. It's amazing how many people treat the Irish like some magical species.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Strictly speaking, isn't it whatever it says on your Passport is what you are? But really it's down to the individual and how you feel.

I'm English, and I feel English. My family have been English for generations as far back as my Granddad's mother who was Irish. I could jump on the 'plastic paddy' bandwagon, but I dont feel any connection to Ireland other than a love of Guinness, shared with many people across the plant no doubt.

I'd say its a combination of where you were born, and what nationality your parents are.

I was hoping not to get into semantics and there you go and bring it up in the first post
I know it has a legal definition but I couldn't really think of a better synonym to describe what I was going for.

Living in a relatively Catholic area I see lots of 'plastic paddies'... I wonder if in the future we'll see the same behaviour of the descendants of Eastern European immigrants.

 

[JoJo]

I like to separate ethnicity from nationality, so I consider myself:

Ethnic group: English (I'm about 3/4 English by ancestry, the rest German, Danish and Irish from Victorian era migration)
Nationality: British (Born, raised and still live in the United Kingdom)
Continent: European (Again, born and raised here)
Race: White (Most or all of my ancestry from Europe, don't like the term "Caucasian" for various reasons and it's not used much in the UK anyway)
Civilisation: Western (Live and identify with Western culture)

I think nationality is wherever you have citizenship of and then ethnic group and race covers other heritage etc.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I tend to define my nationality as nothing more than the country I was born in and the one my parents where born in. So while I would identify as English/British as I was born here I don't really concern myself with feeling British or what should be considered British.

 

[Faraja]

I go with the classic "American". Mostly because "citizen of the United States of America" is way too long to say. A lot of people list their ancestry, but I have no real connection with France, Ireland, or England. Well, that and the fact that there are a lot of other branches so it could take a long time.

At the end of the day, I was born in the US, I live in the US, I'm a patriot, I will likely die in the US, and the interests of the US are my primary concern (when it comes to international concerns, that is). So, basically yeah, American.

 

[an annoyed writer]

It'd be easiest to say that I'm American, but my roots trace back to Russia, Prussia, Germany, France, Sweden, Poland, and several other countries within the former Soviet bloc. The end result leaves me with a vaguely eastern-European look, so I just go with something like Russian-American, Polish-American, or German-American, since those are the biggest fractions of my heritage.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

This is a bit of an odd one for me, because having one Scottish and one English parent and being raised in England, I have always thought of myself as British.

Yet I'm planning to vote for Scottish independence.

So actually, for the first time in my life I'm not really sure what I consider to be my national identity. Not really English since I much prefer Scotland, it seems untenable to call myself British if I'm not also a unionist, and it would be absurd to call myself Scottish, given my accent.

'Tis a conundrum.

 

[Smolderin]

I'm American, plain and simple. Going a little bit deeper, I am half German half native American. Mostly German though, we still have our coat of arms of are family hanging on the wall so are's is a family with quite the history.

 

[Nouw]

I'm a Korean New Zealander. Born in Korea, came here when I was two and I live in both cultures.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'm Canadian because I was born and raised in Canada and it's the country/nation I feel the strongest ties to.

 

[mitchell271]

I'm Canadian. Born and raised in Ontario, I come from a mixed background; mother's side is Chinese, father's side is English with a bit of Irish and Scottish for good measure. I have UK citizenship but I only identify as English whenever I'm teasing my English friends.

 

[Esotera]

I tend to call myself a human before anything else, as at the end of the day I feel a greater affinity to humanity as a whole rather than any one country. My second form of nationality would be as an Englishman.

 

[Auron225]

Irish.

Being from Northern Ireland (born and lived all my life) and having two Northern Irish parents, I can say Irish, British or Northern Irish if I want to be very specific, yet all of them are true. Why I choose Irish is because;

- If I say "British", people immediately think "English" which is not only annoying since that is false but it also seems to have more negative connotations than positive.
- If I say Northern Irish, people get confused. You'd be suprised how many don't know that it's a seperate country and how often I have to then give a mini-history lesson.
- Irish is simpler and people tend to respond with "Cool!" or "I'm 1/16 Irish!!"

 

[MetalMagpie]

I'm British according to my passport, but feel very strongly English, as it's where I've always lived. My mum's family are all Welsh, but I've never felt a particular connection with the country.