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| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
In Canada even people who are born here claim different nationality. Thats why i ask |
And that's the main problem with nationalities - it's got a legal value but, in most other cases, it's a completely null and void concept.
Nationality is, in English usage, a legal relationship existing between a person and a state. The person becomes subject to the state's jurisdiction, even while not on the state's territory; in exchange the subject becomes entitled to the state's protection, and to other rights as well.
This quote from wikipedia is all there is to nationalities in theory (other than an alternative usage that is subject of flaws). And what exactly is the problems extending it's meaning?
Simply put, people are too complex to be labelled. A person is able to belong to a group only to a certain degree, as individuals, since they're bound to see the world and deal with the world in an unique way. Although my actions are to be judged by the Brazilian jurisdiction in case I break one of the laws, it's impossible to "act Brazilian" as this sort of stereotype is innacurate and product of misleading generalisations.
However, an alternative sense of nationality (the other usage) can be seen in the new world (America as a continent) after the European invasion. Despite of the somewhat recent creation of European states, some of the cultures are a couple of millenia old (e.g. think of the Greeks). In a couple of centuries you could find in these places, thousands of people from many different parts of the world. This sort of human interaction has a few problems, the language being the main one. We can't know much of a person unless we speak a language in common. Slowly, the majority of people established the lingua franca, but the trauma of the first impact was not vanished because of a contradiction - if we were all to become the same, who would we be? We would look back to our ancestors and adopt a "nationality" that no longer can be applied to us, since we're naturally different from them (the Mexicans that can't eat hot pepper was a funny example) since, like I said, there's no such thing as "acting Mexican". For example:
| quote: | Originally posted by DarkFall01
Well, in my case, I was born in Switzerland, my father's Spanish, my mom Venezuelan. I have 3 nationalities but when ppl ask me where I'm from I say Spanish (as from Spain), even though I've never lived in Spain. I just identify with Spanish ppl way better than with Swiss and Venezuelan (even though I do feel like I'm partly Swiss and partly Venezuelan). |
The Spanish feeling would come from a probable affinity with his father, even though he's never been to Spain in his whole life, so he would be bound to have a cultural shock if he went to Spain. A similar example is when people of Asian or African ancestry, who live in America, go to their homeland. Loads of things become strange to them, as their world is different. Once again, the feeling that the others are different arise, as in the beginning of the colonisation of America.
Having these cultural shocks is not compulsory though. Thanks to mass communication, I find many North American costumes natural (such as Halloween), although I may have cultural shocks in my own land (I actually had when I went to the Northeast).
| quote: | Originally posted by DarkFall01
I for example feel more European than Latin bc my friends have always been European and I always went to a German speaking school, even when I lived in Venezuela... |
This weird distinction of "Latin" as an exclusive term if compared to "European" is a reverse example. What would Latin be? A layman would say that it's someone from Latin America, ignoring the massive presence of Latin languages (and culture) in Europe, and favouring cultural differences that might have appeared in every different country. Let's face it - it's virtually impossible to create, in a logical sense, an umbrella term as "Latin" to describe the cultures from the Southern side of Rio Grande and be strict not to add the main culture in their development. This happens though either for economical prejudice or geographical convinience.
| quote: | Originally posted by Samu_Mad
here in spain, if u born here and ur parents have other nationallity u cant be spanish, until some years, at least one of em have to be spanish or have the spanish nationallity if u want to be spanish from the 1st day. |
This happens exclusively because it's a country of the old world, otherwise there would be no need to take the parents' nationality in consideration. Like ierxium said: People embrace the culture they live in. It's natural. By embracing that culture from an early age you would expect them to claim to be from that country. , so if he grew up in Spain, he should be seen as "Spanish", as any other Spaniard.
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post of the day.
