following on from peppy...

[MiniN]

how do you define your nationality?

is it where you were born?

where your parents are from?

where you have lived the majority of your life thus far?

or another way? and why?

[cascarelli]

It's where you were born. If you based it on your parents how far back would you go?

[nat_84]

Where i was born and i'd go back as far as my parents in order to state my nationality.

So i'm only quarter south african... as my mums fully english and my dads 1/2 english and 1/2 south african.

If we were to go on grandparents i'd be all sorts!

[ummmm]

Where you are born and where your parents are from.

A friend of mine was born in England. His parents are Indian, he speaks Indian, follows Indian customs etc. I don't think you can really class him as English.

[missyR]

I am kinda iffy about my background as my dad was adopted so god knows what kind of background i could have. But i would definetley base it on where you were born.

[johnlambert]

When I was serving in Germany (Munster) we had a girl, both my then wife and I are Scots but according to some ABers our wee girl should be German as thats where she was born, she is Scottish, just like her parents!!! we take our nationality from our parents

[Supernick]

I'm with pa____ul.

I think it's whatever you feel most comfortable with inside. Within reason of course - if I have no connections to Columbia I can't go around calling myself Columbian just because I like the sound of it. But if your parents are from one place and you're born in another, then you may feel more like your parents and their culture than you place of birth.
What appears on your passport might be one thing, but who your culture and identity might be something else much more personal

[beejaybee]

It`s taken from where you were born.

[Supernick]

Following on from that, all my parents and grandparents are English, so to get a sense of persepective on it, I'll have to regionalise.
My mum is Northern, and my Dad is southern. I was born in South Shields like my mother, and spent a few years growing up there. The majority of my growing up was done down south though in Bath (with periods in Port Glasgow and Kent), although i spent my most important mental growth years at university in Lancaster. I now live in London again, down south, so who do I feel I am? Northerner of Southerner? My birth certificate says I'm a Northener, but I don't feel like I come from there. If I feel like I come from anywhere then I feel more intrinsically Southern for some reason.
So I think that Nationality is fixed. Where you are born is what your nationality is. But your identity, and what you call yourself can be something quite different.

[jedimistress]

I think as lot of people choose whatever they nationality think to be the nicest or most exotic in other peoples eyes. My bf is english born and talks with a Southampton accent. He maintains he's Scottish because his dad is, even though his mum is English and he's only been to Scotoland once and lives in England. My sister is the same, says she's scottish though born in England english and and scottish mum, living in England. It's easier to be associated with the sterotype of the scots (friendly and celtic) rather than that of the english (lager louts and world crusades etc). So I think this is how a lot of people choose. Choosing the nation with the nicer reputation. I consider myself to be english. We're all mongrels and mixes now anyway, how far do you want to go back in history. I choose to live here in England, grew up in Scotland have scottish accent and scottish mum.