Nationality

The nationality of a person is that person's legal relationship with a state, for example a Swedish person's legal relationship with the kingdom of Sweden. Nationality is not identical to citizenship but in the majority of states most of the population are both citizens and nationals. Dual nationality means that the person has a legal relationship with two different states at the same time, for example with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The rights and duties of individual people and the states they belong to vary from country to country.

"Nationality" can take on different meanings depending on the country, language and culture in question. For example, someone of Italian descent may be called "Italian" even if the individual, a member of the Italian diaspora, has no right to an Italian passport and citizenship. In past centuries, the usual meaning of "nationality" was not political, but rather meant membership in an ethnic group. In modern cases such as in airports, when officials ask your "nationality," they are asking to see the passport you use for travel to foreign countries.

Nationality Media

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  Immigration inspection directory sign at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, use the term "Chinese nationals" while the Chinese text refers to "Chinese citizens (中国公民)".

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  A Soviet birth certificate, in which the nacional'nost' of both parents (here both Jewish) was recorded. These records were subsequently used to determine the ethnicity of the child, as specified in his internal passport.

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  By state:     Unmarried fathers are unable to confer nationality on their children *     Mothers are unable to confer nationality on their children and spouses *     Women are unable to confer nationality on spouses and/or acquire, change, and retain their nationality