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What is my nationality? Can I say that I am American if I lived here for more than 10 years?

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When people ask me my nationality, I tell them the countries my ancestors came from rather than the country that I'm from, even though I was born in the US. You can consider yourself American, but generally when someone asks you your nationality, they want to know your genetic origins.
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I have had ancestors in this country before the Mayflower.  The Jamestown Virginia settlement was the first permanent English settlement in the U.S.  I also have what is called politcally correct today Native American.

If you have become a naturalized American citizen, your nationality is American just as American as mine.  Nationality and ancestral heritage is not the same thing.

In my ancestral heritage I am a mutt.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/n...
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your whereever you wereborn
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When I was young I said I was German American. My sister and I are the first ones in our family to not speak German. We have been Americanized and our roots have been lost to us. We are now very proud Americans and our family's roots are now here.
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I'm all Persian and I lived in the US for 17 years, but when people ask me my nationality I would never consider saying I'm American, why would you want to? Your just clouding out what you really are, you should be proud to be different.
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What does your passport say. If you are a citizen (and only a citizen) of the US. The rest are just residents, aliens, and illegals.
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If you're using the word NATIONALITY, then no. You are a "NATIONAL" of the place where you were born, by definition.

However, if you're a citizen of the United States of America, you now have the right to say you're American...but your nationality is not!!!

If you're not a citizen, you're not American in any way.
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Well if you an American Citezen then You would be American By Law or whatever-it-is.

But if you were born somewhere else by people which was born there then you would be so-&-so by blood.

Do you get what i mean???

I hope yuu do!
Report (0) (0) | earlier
Your nationality is the country in which you are born. You can't say you are an american just because you live here. Dont work that way. Nope. Sorry.
Report (0) (0) | earlier
If you have been naturalized you can say your citizenship is American.. because you are an american citizen.

If you hold dual citizenship or more then you can state any of them as your citizenship.

Nationality is like citizenship (not the same thing.. but basically it means Nation of Citizenship.. so if you have been naturalized yes. If you are a deemed resident you would not be a national but either without nationality or your previous nation of citizenships nationality unless it was revoked.

ancestory is not the same as nationality.. nationality denotes current citizenship -- ancestory denotes historic family cultural origins which may include nationstate identities but also clan and kin..

for instance my origins in the modern era (post 1700 may trace back to Bavaria, The Rhine Palitinate, Wiltshire/Bristol,  but more generally France / Great Britain, Germany/the Lowlands, .... and even potentially other area in Europe..

my origins since the 1800's is in Ontario Canada  ---

my Ancient background once again may be europe then beyond that gets locked into prehistory.

My legal nationality.. would be Canadian from a canadian legal standpoint becaue I was stated born of two candians on Canadian soil.jus soli and jus sanguinis For myself I consider myself of my own state without national linkage, as in general I'm not a nationalist but a sovereigntist and beleive in freedom. In that respect I am a "natural born american" but not an United States citizen in that regard.. but a sovereign american - and part of the human body of earth.. yada yada.

The easy answer is.. yes if you are naturalized.

see this wiki link for more info on the semantics

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

By jus sanguinis I am also British --- for some purposes but the number of generations 5 or 6 is not too applicable in legal applications in modern law.. likewise jus sanguinis would apply to my continental (europa) jus sanguinis.. but usually it is only applicable to one or two generations.. while soli tends to be more absolute..

naturalization is a VERY legal occurance, and very applicable to current law.. in the past only specific individuals may have had citizenship rights.. although there were some methods to gain citizenship..  while in ancient times of the greeks you had to trace your blood line from other citizens...

while citizenship is not wholely synonymous with nationality.. it is very close.. a nation is a political organization based on common cultural ties

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

while citizenship is someone who holds rights within a government which may be a nation or some other state

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

the issue is that.. not all nations are seen as soveregin

(at law) they have their own laws but may be part of a supralegal organization) For instance Quebecers may be a nation but they are within a federation..

likewise scottish and welsh are within Kingdom

Canada as a nation may be in the commonwealth of nations which contains many other "country nations" including the united kingdom which is a actual multiple kingdoms crowns united as great britain and other common wealth crowns etc. but different national legal divisions divide the social bodies into different societies etc...

Likewise the EU has many member nations but is seen as a political and economic community.. which meets some definitions of Nation.. so people could say their nationality is European Unionist. etc..

it gets complex but what it comes down to is.. it depends on the legal definition of national.

In case of the US it is more complex.. as you can be a national without us citizenship...

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

Of course Ethnic groups do not necisarily compose a nation but may be spread.. like the Jews during the dispora, or the Croats, or Albanians, or Six Nations Indians, or Mayans, or Maori.. but often these groups may try to form "national homelands" which often leads to conflicts because their national homeland is within a country....

The united states has large German and British ethinic  population that consider themselves Amercian before British or German most likely.. you just don't see the German States of America and the British States of America.. or the Liberian States of America (that is liberia..) but you could (not likely though...

Normally these main ethnic forces will exist within the Countries National Political Structure where a number of ethnicities merge together to form a "national state identity"

For instance George Busch / Bush.. family has ties with Germany.. they are likely German Americans.. ..  Barack Obama was born in the US by a Kenyan father (so he may have Kenyan National Citizenship.. depending on their laws.. (the interesting thing is Kenya wasn't an independant nation when Barack was Born.. but was a British Oversees territory.. so by British Law he had British Citizenship as far as I am aware, complex laws change this a bit so Barack is British tooo... but kenya retroactively applied citizenship to Kenyans etc.. complex..)  but an American wife... on american soil thus he is american by 1/2 sanguinis and jus soli (born at Honolulu, Hawaii) .. he may also be Indonesian as his step father was Indonesian and he lived in indonesia... he returned to america and has lived here(there) pretty much since...

So Barack has a mixed ethnicity... but he doesn't claim to be a Kenyan national (he wasn't born in Kenya) he doesn't claim to be an indonesian national (even though he lived there...

He is hawiaan... but he is not part of the kingdom of Hawaii (take into account hawaii was annexed by the US but is  Kingdom with an native Ethnic poplation that claims sovereignty to the Island... none the less.. the point is ethnicity does not equate nationality outright -- as not all ethnicities have a "nationstate" .. some ethnicities do not have a homeland, and some have participation in multiple states... as the world has multicultural societies.. that are mutliethnic.

The basis of nationality is broad and is not really a defined legal term except to denote a group of people as part of a common society. Its usages may be varied though.

---------

On the Obama thing.. I wonder if this means Lord Black will be released if he becomes President?
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Last time I checked, you had to be born here, or made a citizen to be considered an American.
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It's totally incorrect that Nationality means ethnicity. It means the country of your citizenship. If you are a U.S. citizen then you are American.

In reality, people, incorrectly, and rudely in my opinion, use the word "nationality" all the time when they really want to ask about your ethnic or ancestral origins. In your case, if you speak with a foreign accent, you can definitely assume they are curious about where you were born.
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