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

Does no one think of themselves as 'European'? We're all in the EU together now....

I also have Mexican nationality because of my dad. I always considered myself primarily American but I do feel a special connection with Mexico and I spent a lot of time there in my childhood. If someone were to refer to me as Mexican, I would be fine with it and would consider it accurate. I feel at home in 3 different countries, so consider myself pretty lucky!

My father is Mauritian and we lived there for several years when I was a child but, for some reason, I never identify myself as Mauritian.

Strange.

I feel at home in 3 different countries, so consider myself pretty lucky!

Yes, that's a blessing--the complication is worth it!

The person who told me I wasn't really British was an American from my hometown in the US, not a Brit. I think she was either just being insensitive or trying to wind me up deliberately.

And yet, ironically, she's probably happy describing herself or someone else as "Italian" or "Irish" even though they are 3rd or 4th generation - which I admit I find rather strange.

And yet, ironically, she's probably happy describing herself or someone else as "Italian" or "Irish" even though they are 3rd or 4th generation - which I admit I find rather strange.

I agree that this is strange! I get a lot of push back when I say I'm "American" when asked my "nationality" but it's really true. My great-grandparents on my mother's mother's side were born in Germany but everyone else has been here for many generations and I'm a mutt. My ancestors were generally from the British Isles, Germany and Eastern Europe but the earliest American immigrant I can find arrived in 1623! My great-grandparents arrived in New Jersey in the 20s, almost 100 years ago and they're the most recent immigrants. I think that gives me the right to just be "American."

I think that's the heart of the thing, the idea of the multicultural mixing pot that exists in the US (even if it is more theoretical now) doesn't exist here. The US may be a nation of immigrants, but Britain does not consider itself that at all and so I think a lot of Britons (regardless of race sometimes) bristle slightly at interlopers saying that they are, especially if they don't understand the minutia of culture, language and the rest. You have to prove yourself here in a way that you don't in the US because we are vain enough to accept anyone who admits in their hearts that America is the best (joking, joking).

I couldn't have said it better myself.

DH and I just had a conversation about this and I tend to believe when I finally stop having visas and pass the Life in the UK test and apply for UK citizenship, I will indeed be a British citizen.

DH Identifies as "English" which I interpreted to mean in ancestry, or by birth. I would never lie and say I was born here, in England, if anyone asked where I was "originally from" I would say the United States. But if I am a UK passport holder visiting Spain and I am asked where I am visiting from, the answer is: England or the UK. Even now I would explain that I am American, but I live in the UK. He says I will always be American.

I am not one of those Americans who describes my ancestry in a bizarre fraction-laden family tree consisting of diving people into 1/4 portions of their parents' parents.

The traditions I took part in over the years I spent in the US were admittedly selfishly based on both fun and proximity to those who celebrate or observe those traditions. In New Jersey where I was born, every year there was a St.Patrick's Day Parade, The Feast of Lights (an allegedly "Italian" festival of the Madonna of the Martyrs which I PROMISE you no Italian would actually observe...least of all with a carnival and spicy sausages with onions and peppers), Diwali celebration and a Puerto Rican Day Parade. When I lived in L.A., I drank Corona on Cinco de Mayo, painted my face white on Dia de Los Muertos and helped bury my friend's dead Jewish father with a shovel along with all his family and friends as part of a "Jewish" tradition.

I am not Italian, Irish, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Indian or Jewish and although my life has been speckled with influences from those cultures and the American versions of those traditions, I wouldn't consider myself more American than anyone who identifies with their family's ancestral identity.

Just as equally however, I wouldn't say I identify with allegedly "All-American" traditions such as Thanksgiving, the Superbowl and the 4th of July. If someone gave me the "cricket test" I would say even when I lived in the US, I supported England.

I have always described it like I was a British person trapped in an American citizen's body.

I will consider my UK citizenship something I earned. Simply being born somewhere isn't a choice.

Purging one's possessions and leaving behind one's friends, family and past, albeit on good terms -- not running away -- to live in a country where you have to pay, test and prove allegiance to the country where one feels most aligned with the culture, people and community is what I call earning the right to call oneself a citizen of that country.

I watched a program called Making Bradford British and I was really impacted by the many viewpoints presented. I would hope when I can produce a British passport from my pocket, despite the way I look or talk, the fact that the laws of the land and my willingness to proudly align myself as a British citizen with both naturalised and British-born people alike would be enough to make me British.

Just my 2p.


Mrs.Randall

DH Identifies as "English" which I interpreted to mean in ancestry, or by birth. I would never lie and say I was born here, in England, if anyone asked where I was "originally from" I would say the United States. But if I am a UK passport holder visiting Spain and I am asked where I am visiting from, the answer is: England or the UK. Even now I would explain that I am American, but I live in the UK. He says I will always be American.
I will consider my UK citizenship something I earned. Simply being born somewhere isn't a choice.

Purging one's possessions and leaving behind one's friends, family and past, albeit on good terms -- not running away -- to live in a country where you have to pay, test and prove allegiance to the country where one feels most aligned with the culture, people and community is what I call earning the right to call oneself a citizen of that country.

Mrs.Randall

I understand these feelings, too. This is exactly how I felt the first time I emigrated. Maybe I'm just too tired to identify with a third country ;-)

I've declared myself to be a "Manxican" Manx/American
 

A bit on topic... not exactly about nationality, but about where those who travel/relocate/have mixed ancestry call home. 

It's just a 14 minute video from TED and Pico Iyer shares some great insight in what a lot of us might feel when moving to the UK. 

I blame Schoolhouse Rock LOL

The Great American Melting Pot Schoolhouse Rock

Seriously, it's an interesting question about how we identify ourselves.  Personally I always self-identified as a New Englander first then as an American of Polish/Irish/Portuguese descent. Now I get to say I'm British, but don't consider myself English as my kids do. 

Dara O'Briain's book, Tickling the English, has a very apt bit about this "I will love my English child" about accepting that your children will not have the same experiences as you and thus their self-identities will be shaped by different things.

I blame Schoolhouse Rock LOL

 

It's always a good conversation when schoolhouse rock can be brought in!

A bit on topic... not exactly about nationality, but about where those who travel/relocate/have mixed ancestry call home. 

It's just a 14 minute video from TED and Pico Iyer shares some great insight in what a lot of us might feel when moving to the UK. 

This is quite thought provoking.

One's sense of home / identity / soul are interconnected, to me, all fixed and fluid, and without this, each of us would not exist. Not about stuff or geography, but self. Akin to what he is saying, I think.

Not sure if that makes sense?   

Thanks for sharing it! 

Does no one think of themselves as 'European'? We're all in the EU together now....

Mr MLG felt v. European when living in Sweden and The Netherlands. Since being back in the UK for over a decade, this has receded and he feels English and identifies with a few regions within it quite strongly. I was only Canadian when we were in The Netherlands. I wonder if we ever went back to the mainland, whether I would acquire a sense of European-ness?