You're nationality is where you were born and raised. Not where your ancestors were. amirite?

Wrong. Born and raised in switzerland. I dont consider myself swiss, not even 0.00000000000000001%. Why would i? They dont speak the same language as i do. I can speak their language but it's not the default language in my head. My culture is not their culture, i dont do the things they do, i dont celebrate what they celebrate, i dont eat the things they eat, not as often anyway, my name doesnt sound like their names, i could go on. And legally im zero % swiss too. I dont have swiss cittizenship. I have a work permit like every other non swiss. I could easily do the swiss pass and become legally swiss if i wanted too but i dont because i'm not swiss.

by AgreeableInterest 1 week ago

Your reading comprehension is lacking

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Nobody in the US claims to be of a different nationality. They are talking about ethnicity and ancestry when they say those things. It is not the same as claiming to actually be from that place.

by Designer-Gear-9566 1 week ago

Actually, your nationality is the same as your citizenship.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Sure so when you're born and raised in the US and you've never left the country are you Irish because that great grandfather you had immigrated here?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The US grants you US citizenship at birth so you're at least legally an american. Most other countries dont do that

by AgreeableInterest 1 week ago

That's not necessarily true. Those two are different concepts. Most often that's the case, but they are not always the same

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Nope. When you fill out a form that asks for your nationality, that's exactly what it's asking for.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Wrong kiddo. I don't know where you're from but get out and travel. I know lots of people who think they're what their ancestors were.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I think most of those people understand the difference between ethnicity and nationality which, apparently, you don't.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

You're talking about a special circumstance though - someone whose great grandparents immigrated here and now they're claiming that ancestry as their nationality. First, they're not typically claiming "nationality" but something closer to heritage or ethnicity. Second, expatriate bubbles are way more common in communities than you might think and have big influence on someone's identity. Even if they're born and raised in the US, if their parents immigrated from a non-English speaking country, it's likely they'll have strong cultural elements from wherever their family came from - native language spoken over English, cultural norms enforced, traditional clothing worn by most, even TV channel preference.

by Latter-Caregiver2314 1 week ago

Yes, I agree that OP is arguing that - I believe that this is a rare attitude in most places in the US. Even if someone is claiming Italian heritage, for example, if it's even more rare that they will use that alone to label themselves as a cultural export. Maybe OP spends more time with annoying people than I do. "American" culture doesn't really exist in a way that other cultures do, anyway. What we would we even call American culture anyway?

by Latter-Caregiver2314 1 week ago

Meh my phone doesn't think that's a word. That or w e r e. Always changes it to we're. No idea why.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Your phone just knows you can't tell the difference, you train your auto correct, and you trained yours to be as dumb as you.

by pnicolas 1 week ago

America is a very specific example and i don't think american circumstances can translate very well into other countries. Let's say you and your ancestors were born in a country A and then Country B invaded and annexed country A within itself, making you technically a resident of country B. Your language, way of talking and even the way of thinking was shaped by the culture of country A. All these factors can internalize within a person making him connect more to the culture of a country he is no longer a legal resident of. The second part of the argument is that the word nation doesn't mean the same thing for every language. In my example it is closer to the word ethnicity which we hold more important than the country because historically some people lived in a place where country borders changed a lot, making the population anchor to the culture which stem from the past. All this to say that maybe in Italian or Irish culture, the concept of a nation is closer to ethnicity, and nationality isn't the same for them as it is to someone who merged citizenship of a country with the concept of nationality. TLDR; Nationality isn't the same for everyone. Italians and Irish bring their way of understanding the word from their ethnic cultures.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

No condescending tone. You don't think war is an extreme example? This is about people who think they're something based on an ancestor's birth place. It is not difficult to understand the difference between the two arguments.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

War was and very much is a cultural constant for a great part of human history, and it shapes the way we behave way after the times of war have passed. Ancestors aren't disconnected from us, they shaped the way we behave today very much. Which leads up to people in current times behaving in a certain way because of some events which occured thousands of years ago.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Don't call someone "kiddo" if you don't want to come across as a condescending prick.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

People don't really have the same energy for caribbeans or Asians with this for some reason

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I don't know many people who even care where their relatives came from, I don't care where mine came from, all I know is it must have been bad for them to leave. No interest in being connected to that. All places I have zero interest in anyway so 🤷‍♂️

by Super-Elephant9468 1 week ago

American with German ancestry = Not a German Non white person raised in Germany, has no cultural ties to any other countries = Also not a German People keep switching their opinion when its convenient to em.

by Lakinamparo 1 week ago

But either of those people could possibly have German nationality.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah but people wouldn't see them as German.

by Lakinamparo 1 week ago

Which is neither here nor there.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Sure, but we also use the same set of words to classify people according to culture and race/ethnicity, so you could well be Italian American for having some culture brought over from Italy by your family, or even a separate "Italian American" culture associated with those immigrants, or you could be African American just by being the right color

by Ok-Ship 1 week ago

None of which has anything to do with nationality.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Which is why I said that we use the same words for different things. The person describing himself in those terms probably isn't referring to his passport

by Ok-Ship 1 week ago

Since there aren't any Italian-American passports or any "African" passports at all, I think we can all grok that those people are talking about ethnicity, even with out hearing the actual conversation.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

That's called Italian descent. Poorly pronouncing Italian dishes isn't exactly culture.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I tell people I'm from the country I live in now because I was raised here but ethnically I'm obviously not lol, I don't think it matters tbh I live here now, I was brought up here so I'm from here. They can ask me about my heritage and I'll tell them but other than that I definitely feel like I'm from my current country more than my ethnic background.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Today I learned I'm a Native American!

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Okay kiddo

by Anonymous 1 week ago

People still confusing nationality with heritage

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Americans love to be Americans, except when they're trying to make themselves more interesting

by CelebrationOdd283 1 week ago

When I was in the Military we had a guy who was American one minute then Irish the next. And always told you how much of a man he was.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Military man... your lack of a brain is starting to make sense.

by pnicolas 1 week ago

OP is clearly white

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Canadian here, what frustrates me is when people ask my background and wont take Canadian for an answer. I am Canadian, my ancestors fled the potato famine in 1849 and have been here ever since.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I'm Canadian, and I answer this with "Ottawa valley assorted", which seems sufficient.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Omg you're bacon!

by Anonymous 1 week ago

*Your And are people really saying "I'm a German national / my nationality is German"? Or are they saying "I'm German / my family is German" - which in the US carries the context of "my family heritage is German"?

by Agreeable-Edge-8441 1 week ago

I'm not claiming this wack ass country

by Anonymous 1 week ago

If you're an American citizen, your nationality is American. Your culture/identity/ethnicity might be something else, though.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Well..jus sanguinis says different for where my parent is from.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah... honestly, it's pretty common to have a citizenship that's different from where you were born/grew up. My husband is a citizen of a country he's only been to a as an adult. I am not a citizen of the country where I was born.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

That happens in South America too. A lot. I know many Peruvians with italian heritage (with or without double nationality) due to a great great grandparent immigrating here. They do claim to be italian and don't even speak that language LOL.

by Maleficent-Bottle 1 week ago