What determines your nationality?

Burnsy2023 said:
You're not one of those BNP supporters are you?
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Nononono, That read very wrong, I apologise!

I am not racist, but I don't understand the difference between race and nationality?

So I thought that nationality was your race, and your race it where your blood line comes form (more recent than Africa, which is where everybody comes from (I think?), thank you LOAM.)

Please do educate me if I'm so very wrong it's painful.
 
Whatever I want it to be. It's just a construct. If you want to counter that with legalities, then there's your answer.
 
Are we talking about where you were born, what nationality you are, where you are resident, where you are domiciled, where you are deemed domiciled, or what country you're allowed to represent in international competition? The answer is different to all of them ;)
 
You determine your nationality. Nothing else. It's just what is on paper - and that can be anything. You can say you are British, Irish - even Thai. Ultimately it means nothing and is not easily proven.

What if you were born on a private plane half way between the USA and the UK over International waters and you touched down on a desert Island not owned by anyone ?

I was born in the England, my parents are from N.Ireland - I have spent most of my life in Northern Ireland. Yet I can hold an Irish passport and have citizenship there. If I moved to Australia, I would call myself Australian - and have citizenship there. It means nothing - and is pretty similar to race.... it can be changed as needed.
 
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Mum's Irish, Dad's Italian. I was born and educated in England + I have an English passport. I also vote in England. That makes me English.
However, I will aways support the Italian football team :)
 
xJcBx said:
So I thought that nationality was your race, and your race it where your blood line comes form (more recent than Africa, which is where everybody comes from (I think?), thank you LOAM.)

Please do educate me if I'm so very wrong it's painful.
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It's quite a complex area because it's not always easy to define characteristics that are biologically seperable rather than those which have no such basis. A lot of the casual definitions revolve around "he doesn't look like me therefore we're different races" when (if memory serves) as is commonly quoted there is more genetic divergence within a race than there is between races.

Your nationality is usually where you are born or at least where you are registered to but you need share no physical characteristics with the race that is predominant in that region (assuming of course we accept the existence of race and that you can usefully define people with it).

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to give you a better definition from a biological standpoint.

SoSolid said:
If a dog is born in a stable is it a horse?
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You may be unaware but that phrase has rather unfortunate connotations to racist groups who use it to dismiss claims of citizenship for those they view as not looking like what they consider the norm to be.

Nix said:
Whatever I want it to be. It's just a construct. If you want to counter that with legalities, then there's your answer.
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This is quite close to my feelings on nationality - you can call yourself any nationality you want and I'll be happy to accept it but ideally the person claiming nationality should feel some sort of emotional investment in the country and want what is best for it (lacking a better phrase). It would be utterly hopeless as a legal concept but fortunately that's not a matter I need concern myself with. I was told a long time ago that "we're a' Jock Tamsin's bairns" and I still appreciate the sentiment.
 
semi-pro waster said:
It's quite a complex area because it's not always easy to define characteristics that are biologically seperable rather than those which have no such basis. A lot of the casual definitions revolve around "he doesn't look like me therefore we're different races" when (if memory serves) as is commonly quoted there is more genetic divergence within a race than there is between races.

Your nationality is usually where you are born or at least where you are registered to but you need share no physical characteristics with the race that is predominant in that region (assuming of course we accept the existence of race and that you can usefully define people with it).

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to give you a better definition from a biological standpoint.
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Thank you!

eCookie!
 
naffa said:
Your nationality is determined by your country of birth.

You may feel like you're Scottish, or Swiss, or American, etc, because you were raised in that particular country, but legally, your nationality is that of the country you were born in. End of (as far as I know :p).
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I Scottish my wife is Irish and my son was born in Belgium he is NOT Belgian.

In fact he can't have more than a resident's permit (like my wife and I have) until he's 18 at which point he has to apply for Belgian citizenship.

He has an Irish passport but only because it's 1/3 of the price of the rip off Britain one that we would have to go to Paris to get :(. Ireland has an embassy in Belgium so it was easier to get an Irish one. Once he starts earning his own cash he can choose Belgian, British or Irish.

He goes to an international school here so who knows how he'll feel about his nationality when he's older (He's only turned 5.)

Just to complicate things I looked at getting an Irish passport but we'd have to move to Ireland for 6 months first and I'd have to give up my UK passport.

Also to get a UK citizenship you're never fully classed as British citizen but have a "special" status so you'd really have to be desperate to wanna get one through marriage.

Furthermore I need to get my son a UK birth certificate as under UK law if he doesn't live in the UK and then has kids his kids no longer have any right to call themselves British, however if I apply to get him a birth cert it's as if he was born in the UK and then his kids would have such a right....

Reminds me I need to get it sorted trouble is you have to send your passports to Paris (dodgy lol)
 
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I've thought about this often, especially when you read about footballers / cricketers representing one country although being born in another. For example Pietersen who was born in SA and plays for England, and Franco who plays for Mexico but was born and raised in Argentina.

Being born in England to English parents, the closest i can get to this mindset is by linking it to counties within the UK. I was born in Surrey and lived there til i was three, the remaining 27 years have been spent in Northamptonshire. I consider myself a Northamptomian, ans support Northants over Surrey in sports etc. Given a choice if i had the option to represent Northants or Surrey in anything i would choose Northants, and would turn down Surrey if Northants wern't interseted.

Hope you can see sum similarity with the OP situation. For what its worth i would say you are more Scottish than German
 
This maybe totally unrelated but why can some footballers play for other nations other than the one they were born in then?
 
Nix said:
Whatever I want it to be. It's just a construct. If you want to counter that with legalities, then there's your answer.
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That pretty much sums my thoughts up nicely. For example, just because you have a British passport and have been born in England, that doesn't necessarily mean that it would be right to always label that person as English. My ex-girlfriend, for example, would always say she was British yet also Pakistani (but not English).
 
Infam0us said:
This maybe totally unrelated but why can some footballers play for other nations other than the one they were born in then?
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As far as i understand it (which could be wrong) if your parents or granparents were born in a diffrent country to the one you were born in the you are eligible to play for them.

For example two of my grandparents were born in Ireland, one in Wales and one in England. So i could play football for Ireland or Wales through my granparents nationality and could play for England as thats the place of my birth.

Although, if you have never played international football before and have resided in a country long enough to apply for residency then you would be entitled to play for that country. Recent examples in the press have been Almunia at Arsenal who is Spanish, but has resided in England long enough for residency so could infact represnt England if picked.
 
Its not as simple as just country of birth.

I was born in Tokyo. My parents are both English, I have an English passport, have lived in England most of my life. I'm not Japanese lol
 
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