Ethnicities & Nationalities

Sorting out ethnicity and nationality can be challenging for many individuals. Consider professional soccer player Sydney Rae Leroux Dwyer. Leroux’s mother is white and her nationality is Canadian. Leroux’s father is African American and his nationality is United States of America. Because of her parents, Leroux holds dual nationality, and has been eligible to play soccer for either the United States or Canada. At various times, she has played for teams representing Canada and teams representing the United States.

Leroux is married to professional soccer player Dom Dwyer, who was born a citizen of the United Kingdom to parents who had emigrated from Jamaica. In 2017, Dwyer became a U.S. citizen and also holds dual citizenship. Their son Cassius, born in 2016, also has multiple nationalities.

Sydney Rae Leroux and Dom Dwyer

Ethnicity & Nationality in North America

Nationality is generally kept reasonably distinct from ethnicity and race in common usage in the United States:

• Nationality identifies citizens of the United States of America, including those born in the country and those who immigrated and became citizens.

• Ethnicity identifies groups with distinct ancestry and cultural traditions, such as African Americans, Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans, or Polish Americans.

In Canada, the distinction between ethnicity and nationality is less clear and more controversial. Québécois are clearly distinct from other Canadians in cultural traditions, especially language. But do the Québécois form a distinct ethnicity within the Canadian nationality or a second French-speaking nationality separate altogether from English-speaking Canadians? The distinction is critical because if Québécois is recognized as a separate nationality from English-speaking Canadians, the Québec government would have a much stronger justification for breaking away from Canada to form an independent country.

Rally In Support of Québec Independence, 1995

Ethnicity & Nationality in the British Isles

An example of the challenges in distinguishing between ethnicities and nationalities is the British Isles, which comprise 133 inhabited islands. Two islands—Ireland and Great Britain—comprise 96 percent of the land area and contain 99 percent of the population. Sorting out the inhabitants of the British Isles into nationalities has become controversial.

The British Isles are divided between two countries—the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom (known officially as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The Republic of Ireland comprises the southern 84 percent of the island of Ireland (called Eire in Irish), and the United Kingdom comprises Great Britain and the northern 16 percent of Eire. The United Kingdom is divided into four main parts: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales

Components of the British Isles

The British Isles comprise two countries: The Republic of Ireland (Eire) and the United Kingdom.

The nationality of the citizens of the Republic of Ireland is clearly Irish. However, the nationality of the citizens of the United Kingdom is disputed. Does the United Kingdom contain one nationality (called British)? Or does it contain four nationalities—English, Scottish, Welsh, and the Irish of Northern Ireland?

• English. The English are descendants of Germanic tribes who crossed the North Sea and invaded the country in the fifth century. These invasions were summarized in Chapter 5 in the discussion under Origin & Diffusion of English.

• Welsh. The Welsh were Celtic people conquered by England in 1282 and formally united with England through the Act of Union of 1536. Welsh laws were abolished, and Wales became a local government unit.

• Scots. The Scots were Celtic people who had an independent country for more than 700 years, until 1603, when Scotland’s King James VI also became King James I of England, thereby uniting the two countries. The Act of Union in 1707 formally merged the two governments, although Scotland was allowed to retain its own systems of education and local laws.

• Irish. The Irish were Celtic people who were ruled by England until the twentieth century, when most of the island became the independent country of Ireland. The northern portion remained part of the United Kingdom.

International sports organizations permit each of the four parts of the United Kingdom to field its own separate national soccer team in major tournaments, such as the World Cup. The most important annual international rugby tournament, known as the Six Nations Championship, includes teams from England, Scotland, and Wales as well as from the Republic of Ireland, Italy, and France. Given the history of English conquest, the other nationalities often root against England when it is playing teams from other countries.

The government of the United Kingdom has established separate governments for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The government of Scotland exercises considerable authority, whereas the one in Wales has much less authority. Scots voted in 2014 to remain part of the United Kingdom, but political differences between Scotland and England may eventually result in an independent Scotland.

Nationalism

Nationalism is loyalty and devotion to a nationality. Nationalism typically promotes a sense of national consciousness that exalts one nation above all others and emphasizes its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nationalities. People display nationalism by supporting a country that preserves and enhances the culture and attitudes of their nationality. States foster nationalism by promoting symbols of the country, such as flags and songs

Mural in Rosbet, County Donegal, Ireland

The painted symbol is the official crest of County Donegal.

Nationalism is an important example of a centripetal force, which is an attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state. (The word centripetal means “directed toward the center”; it is the opposite of centrifugal, which means “to spread out from the center.”) Most countries find that the best way to achieve citizen support is to emphasize shared attitudes that unify the people.

Pause & Reflect 7.3.1

What are some examples of centripetal forces that help to hold the United Kingdom together as one nation in spite of the nationalistic aspirations of some of its ethnicities?