Not really British??? Grrrr!!! (rant warning)

I'm so irritated. Someone today actually told me (on Facebook, I doubt they would've had the gall in person) that I'm not really British because only people who were born and raised here are real British people. Being naturalised doesn't make you British, apparently. It didn't come from a Brit, it came from someone in my hometown in California. While I've always been aware that some people have this attitude, I never actually encountered it until today. Oh my, it really got to me. I know this is silly. I have a few relatives including my father who were born and raised in Mexico and are now naturalised American citizens. My dad considers himself an American, I don't think of him as not a real American just because he was born and raised elsewhere. That's outrageous! They don't exactly give citizenship away just for marrying a citizen. I feel like I worked for mine so I'm proud of having it. UGHHHH, I just needed to have a good rant about this. None of my friends would probably understand it.

Apparently I'm not really an American because I naturalized. 
My conclusion - some people are just idiots.

That sucks.  Sorry to hear she's being a bit silly.

Maybe make the distinction between British and British-born for her?  She might be mixing the two and thinking 'British' means British-born (even though that only shows where someone is born, not what they culturally associate themselves with).  If you have a British passport and you feel connected to British culture, you're British!  

If someone said that to me on FB, I'd probably unfriend them.    You don't need to hear that from FB.  Or anywhere!  

Hugs.  

She's not a friend, thankfully. It was just a random nobody on another page. I told her she was an insensitive oaf, which I realise was probably not helpful. But I was livid at the time (hot-blooded Latin woman here) and didn't really think before replying!

Ugh, don't you hate ignorant people?

I still remember when I moved here and telling my old collegues that I wanted to go to Scotland, as I'm Scottish.  They slapped me down so fast telling me I was AMERICAN and not at all Scottish.  Then again, they weren't a very nice group.

Ugh, don't you hate ignorant people?

I still remember when I moved here and telling my old collegues that I wanted to go to Scotland, as I'm Scottish.  They slapped me down so fast telling me I was AMERICAN and not at all Scottish.  Then again, they weren't a very nice group.

I totally didn't think about this when I posted earlier, but ancestry/citizenship makes it so confusing.   

I remember my brother asking DH 'So, you're Indian, right?'.... Umm.... no.... DH is just as British as our parents are American (both 2nd generation).  DH usually considers himself British (with Indian ancestry but he usually just leaves it at British).  He could say he's Indian, but he doesn't really feel much of a connection to India (obviously a connection to his Indian/British family, all of which live in the UK, and his Indian-born grandad who's lived in London most of his life) so he's British... with Indian ancestry.

On the other side of the spectrum, my family is American with Scandinavian heritage.  We still carry on Scandinavian customs at holidays (mainly food-related but my grandfolks spoke Norwegian and Swedish) and I relate to Scandinavian culture enough to proudly say I'm Scandinavian (mainly Norwegian and Swedish with a bit of Danish).

It's all about what you relate to and what you feel you are.... not what other people say you are (or aren't). 

Ugh, don't you hate ignorant people?

I still remember when I moved here and telling my old collegues that I wanted to go to Scotland, as I'm Scottish.  They slapped me down so fast telling me I was AMERICAN and not at all Scottish.  Then again, they weren't a very nice group.

To be fair, I think if you'd worded it as something like 'Because part of my family originates from Scotland' you might have had a different reaction. But saying 'Because I'm Scottish' if you're not from there is going to be confusing to some people. Not everyone understands the American thing of 'I'm 1/2 Italian, 1/4 French, etc.' To them, you're American because that's where you're from. Though that's not to say they shouldn't have at least been nicer about it! Of course, I'm talking purely about ancestry rather than citizenship. If you're sitting there holding a British passport and someone tries to tell you you're not British, that's not on.

Hmmm.. i'm not really sure about this.  You can call yourself whatever you want, but that doesn't make it so.  

I am naturalised British, and i refer to myself as British because my passport entitles me to do so.  However, I have lived in Scotland for almost my entire adult life... I live, work, and socialise in Scotland.  I speak with a strange accent that some identify as Scottish, I vote in Scottish elections... you see what I mean.  But i would never say to someone 'I am Scottish', because I wasn't born in Scotland.
Come the Referendum, this could change?!  I don't really know how it will work when it comes to passports with Scottish as the nationality.

Perhaps i haven't completely thought it through properly, so please don't anyone take offence... this was just what came to mind.

I TOTALLY get that I'm not Scottish (it's ancestry that I have).  I was just used to how in America everyone says "what they are".  I agree my former co-workers could have been nicer about it, but I completely understand where they were coming from.

You have to admit though, in the US you are taught to believe your ancestry is "what you are".

I know now to say that I'm American.   

Albatross, I do see your point there. I don't refer to myself as English because it just feels kind of wrong, for some reason I can't really put my finger on. But I do know what you mean.

Sad to say, but a lot of the extreme right wing idiots here in the UK have jumped on the "if you and your parents and their parents and their parents (keep going with this) weren't born here, you are not British" bandwagon. Unfortunately others pick up the same mantra.

I will always be American by birth, English & Irish by ancestry, and hopefully in another year, British through naturalization.

DH is English by birth + ancestry as far back as we know, but is also a naturalized American citizen. He has referred to himself as 'American' from time to time :-)

This issue has cropped up before on UKY, the question of British vs English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish.  It's definitely a fraught topic.  My DH can't understand why Americans talk about their ancestry (ie "Irish-American") instead of just saying American.  Yet, I think my DH would definitely argue that TravellingFrog's husband is British but not English, regardless of the fact that he was born and raised in England.  For myself, although I am a naturalised British citizen, I wouldn't call myself English.  It's funny, because if I naturalised as French, for example, I would say I was French.  Similarly, I have asked several people who were born and raised in France but have African ancestry whether they think of themselves as French or African (Senegalese, etc) and they all say they are French.  Not African-French, just French.  For them, the citizenship and the ethnicity are the same thing, while in Britain and the US they seem to be perceived as different.   

It's all about what you relate to and what you feel you are.... not what other people say you are (or aren't). 

I agree with this. I've heard the "Not really British" comments many, many times here. Sometimes it is offensive (as in, your ancestors were from somewhere else so you don't belong here), but more often it seems to be a different concept of nationality here than in North America. I don't, by the way, mean that everyone in any country agrees about nationality! It's just that in the USA and Canada, there is an immigrant tradition whereby people of different birthplaces or ancestries become Americans (or Canadians), and that's what naturalization means there.

My personal experience (your mileage may vary) is that naturalization means almost nothing in the UK. It might mean something to you personally, and it means practical things like the right of abode, but it won't prevent "not British" comments from many people who were born here. They may not mean to offend. It isn't even necessarily about Britishness (or Englishness or...) it is just that they don't get naturalization of an immigrant. For example, my brother-in-law insists that I can only ever be American, "full stop" because that's where I was born. It doesn't matter that I am a naturalized Canadian citizen, lived there for many years, and consider Canada my home. To him, Canadians are people born in Canada and it doesn't matter what I feel.

Reminds me of Tebbit's Cricket Test:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_test

Reminds me of Tebbit's Cricket Test:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_test

Yes! I thought of that exactly, sonofasailor!

Judging nationality based on what sports team someone cheers for could have interesting results, though. During last year's Olympics and Paralympics, I had three teams to celebrate