3 ms·

While this might be true to some extent, a huge difference between the US and Europe is that in the EU the concept of identity revolves more around nationality

• foldr 4y ago
  It's 'nationality' under an implicitly racialized understanding. If you are not white, having a German passport will not be enough for many Germans to consider you fully German. That's not to deny that American racial categories are either inapplicable or less central to personal identity in most European countries; but let's also not pretend that the roughly equivalent concept is some kind of bloodless bureaucratic idea of 'nationality'.
  • chimeracoder 4y ago
    > but let's also not pretend that the roughly equivalent concept is some kind of bloodless bureaucratic idea of 'nationality'. An apt choice of words, given that almost all European countries practice jus sanguinis - literally "right of the blood". In contrast to how citizenship works in most of North and South America, people who are born in European countries do not automatically get citizenship (nationality) of the country of birth. Instead, citizenship is inherited. This system became popular in many European countries in part because it provided a way to avoid automatically granting citizenship to immigrants from the now-former colonies, instead creating an extra barrier.
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]