The essential meaning of a nation is, ‘people born in and living permanently inside accepted boundaries’. This definition was weakened by past population movements. People of different nationalities and races, after a generation, became nationals of a country by birth. Today this has become the normal method of nation-building. It has not been without problems. Visible differences, usually of skin colour or facial shape, but also of a non-permanent nature, such as clothing, single out some as not being ‘original’ nationals. Racial prejudice is the easiest of vices to develop – and the most harmful to a nation.
How does a nation become a nation? I am most familiar with the history of the country of my birth, Scotland, and of Canada, where I have lived and been a citizen of, for over 30 years. For people who are not in my position of being an immigrant, the question of, ‘What am I?’ doesn’t arise. Am I still a Scot, or am I now a Canadian? I feel I can say I am both. Some governments say that this is not a possibility, I must be one or the other. Just a few years ago my wife, coming home from a visit to Scotland, was given a hard time by a Canadian border agent at the airport for still using her British passport, when she was a Canadian citizen. It so happens that our British passports had not expired and it was cheaper to use them rather than buy new Canadian ones. (Perhaps that explanation shows that we are still more Scots than Canadian!).
I think it is quaint that two of my grandchildren, both born in Canada, are proud to think of themselves as half-Scottish. Two others, also born in Canada, have a Scottish father, and an American mother. Are they quarter Scottish, the other fractions being quarter American and half Canadian? Another granddaughter has a Scottish father and a Canadian mother of Welsh parents. I can’t start to think how to make national fractions of her! The next question is, ‘Does it matter?’ And if it does, ‘Why?’ What a heterogeneous family we are! And my wife and I are responsible for this whole mess by deciding to emigrate to Canada!!
It’s about time we changed our ideas about nationality and consider that we are, as the Scots say, “all Jock Tamson’s bairns”. (That means children of the World.) Democracy begins with the individual. It’s nice to know who your parents were, but it’s not essential for you to be a good Citizen of the World. I would like to see the word ‘illegitimate’ (and its seven letter equivalent) gone from our legal vocabulary. Every child born into this world is legitimate in his or her own right.
[...] The first post in the “Political” Category is HERE [...]
[...] The first post in the “Nationality” Category is HERE [...]