The Student Room Group

Whats my nationality?

This is something I've wondered a long while, and people seem to disagree with me. I'd say that I'm English but some say I'm welsh.

I was born in England, but raised and have lived in wales right on the border for all my life. Most my family lives in England so I spent time equally in each country seeing relatives. Both parents are English born (and to english parents).

So what does determine nationality more, birthplace? Parents? Or where you've lived?

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IMO birthplace determines it

but i know some people class themselves as half and half if they have parents from a different country than they were born
I'm Irish through and through, my parents were Irish and so were their parents. But I was born and raised in London. There is no complete definition; where do your loyalties lie?
Reply 3
Legally speaking, British.
My mum is Welsh my Dad is English, I was born in England. I consider myself to be British, half english half welsh. I support England in football and cricket and wales in rugby. Where do your loyalties lie? Thats what decides it.
Where do you feel more affinity to? Wales, or England?
croissantfever
My mum is Welsh my Dad is English, I was born in England. I consider myself to be British, half english half welsh. I support England in football and cricket and wales in rugby. Where do your loyalties lie? Thats what decides it.


England and Wales in cricket :biggrin:
Reply 7
I'm a toughie haha :ahee:

Cuban dad, Irish mum. Born in ireland, moved to the uk with my dad's job when i was 5.

Still consider myself Irish (with a tan :wink: ), and supported them in pretty much all sports. Especially RUGBY :biggrin:
I've always thought of myself as British. My alliegiance is to the Crown [of the United Kingdom] and no other.

I also don't support any one British sports team above another. This is quite easy as I have only a very limited interest in sport.
I think it's where someone spent most of their time growing up. I don't think it has anything to do with your parents' or grandparents' nationalities or with genetics. Or where you're born, if you only stayed there a short time.

If you feel both English and Welsh, why not call yourself British?
Reply 10
Anonymous
This is something I've wondered a long while, and people seem to disagree with me. I'd say that I'm English but some say I'm welsh.

I was born in England, but raised and have lived in wales right on the border for all my life. Most my family lives in England so I spent time equally in each country seeing relatives. Both parents are English born (and to english parents).

So what does determine nationality more, birthplace? Parents? Or where you've lived?

Does it matter? I'm the same, born in Manchester, my parents moved to Wrexham, just on the Welsh side of the border, when I was 6 months old, and I grew up there. My brother and sister were born there. I went to secondary school in Chester, where there was the big Welsh/English rivalry and there I was always considered Welsh because I took the bus back to Wales each day (that and I'm a Wrexham FC supporter, which never goes down well in Chester). I've remained in Wales all my life except for 12 months in Bordeaux as part of uni, I now live in Cardiff, where I studied. However, now I'm not in secondary school nationality (in terms of the nations) isn't really an issue. I support Wales in the rugby, am indifferent to the football (but will get behind England in the World Cup/Euros etc etc). What matters is that I'm a human (with a British passport). Frankly, borders are just arbitrary lines in the ground, and my identity as a Welshman, as a Briton, as a European, and as a human make little difference to me in my day to day life. You self determine your cultural nationality, and also the extent to which it matters to you.
You're screwing up ethnicity with nationality.

There is no English nationality. There is no Welsh nationality. Your nationality is 100% British.

You don't need ethnic ties to be a nationality; I'm not ethnically Israeli but I am nationally Israeli. Your ethnicity is what you're questioning, and that depends on wherever the hell your parents are from.
English and Welsh aren't nationalities. Your nationality is British, under the British Nationality Act.

That's the legal point of view, as far as I'm aware as a non-lawyer anyway.

You can say whatever you want though. People have all these crazy ideas saying they're half Welsh, half English; some of the weirder ones include being one third Irish, one third Spanish and one third English; or even one quarter French, one quarter German, one half British.
Anonymous
This is something I've wondered a long while, and people seem to disagree with me. I'd say that I'm English but some say I'm welsh.

I was born in England, but raised and have lived in wales right on the border for all my life. Most my family lives in England so I spent time equally in each country seeing relatives. Both parents are English born (and to english parents).

So what does determine nationality more, birthplace? Parents? Or where you've lived?
english parents = english

mind you i generally class myself as british anyway, not terribly important distinction
How on earth did you manage to post anonymously on the General Discussions forum??
Reply 15
Your British, problem solved? xD
Reply 16
You're born in England to English parents? It's obvious, your ethnicity is English. You're British by nationality, as all English and Welsh people would be.

You're not Welsh in any sense. That's like me being born in England to English parents, and moving to France. I'd still be English.

Correct me if I'm wrong in anyway, but that's the way it appears to me.
Reply 17
DarkWhite
English and Welsh aren't nationalities. Your nationality is British, under the British Nationality Act.


A nation is generally considered to be an entity formed by culture and identity, whereas a sovereign state is a political unit. Obvious there are massive overlaps here. Nationality is ambiguous in meaning, either meaning the belonging to a national community (in the cultural and identity sense of 'nation') or to a state.

Britishness comprises two separate thing: citizenship/political status and nationhood/identity. English and Welsh nationality only has one of those elements, but it is still nationality - England and Wales are popularly seen as nations, albeit nations within a nation (as, in fact, most nations are).

aliluvschoc
You're born in England to English parents? It's obvious, your ethnicity is English. You're British by nationality, as all English and Welsh people would be.

You're not Welsh in any sense. That's like me being born in England to English parents, and moving to France. I'd still be English.

Correct me if I'm wrong in anyway, but that's the way it appears to me.


I know plenty of people who were born in a certain country to certain parents, and now consider themselves part of another country. It is perfectly credible that a person who is English who moves to Wales and adopts a Welsh identity can become - in every meaningful sense of the word - Welsh. It's simply a matter of preferences.
Evidently you're ethnically English.
Your BRITISH! not engling,welsh or scottish we are all BRITISH.