If I told you that I was British would that mean anything to you? Would you perhaps subconsciously conjure an image in your head of what a British person might be? Perhaps you would imagine me to be polite and reserved? How I wonder would your mental image of me change were I to tell you that I was not British, rather that I was Ethiopian?
It is likely that we all carry images in our head that are unwillingly conjured when descriptions or labels such as this are used. Indeed, they form a fundamental part of our language – acting as a sort of short-hand for often very complex concepts. Any form of labelling can have a positive or negative impact, and yet it strikes me that the concept of nationality is one which is too often taken for granted and as such passes without scrutiny, being accepted as a formal definition despite the fact that this may be nothing more than a stereotype.
What then does it mean to be British? There are perhaps obvious tropes which spring to mind when the word British is uttered: notably those which are often perpetuated in popular media. British people drink an awful lot of tea for one thing, and they wear bowler hats on their way to work in London. Of course, not every Brit wears a bowler hat to their job in a bank – some of those cockney types work in markets and speak in riddles… Having lived for many years in England however, and for a few in the environs of London I can safely say that I have never met a single bowler hatted gent, nor a person that speaks in cockney rhyming slang. Nor for that matter have I met a nanny with a parrot-headed umbrella, or anyone who eats cucumber sandwiches…
But if we cannot trust our concepts of umbrellas and bowler hats, perhaps there are more realistic criteria needed to be British? What are the things common to every British citizen? What about living and working (and indeed paying taxes) in Britain? There are British citizens who no longer reside in Britain, yet they remain British so clearly that is not a factor. Perhaps then parentage is a factor? It is certainly true that being born in Britain to British parents automatically qualifies a person for British citizenship. However, it is not a requirement because there are British citizens who were nether born in Britain, nor born to British parents. Indeed if someone does not automatically qualify to be British it is possible for them to apply to become a British citizen through a variety of ways, including simply having lived in Britain for a certain number of years. The standard application process does include a test on the traditions and customs of the UK, but this test is not universal to all British citizens as it only applies to those applying for citizenship and not to those who are born British.
Given then that it is possible to ‘become’ British by means of an application process, clearly neither the location of your birth, nor your parentage is a key factor in determining your ‘Britishness’. What then remains? Language?
In point of fact, the process of becoming a British citizen does in include a language test – but not for everyone: many Commonwealth citizens are excluded, as are the over-65s… and similarly to the test on traditions and customs of the UK, the requirement to speak English does not apply to anyone born in the UK or outside of the UK to British parents! In addition to which of course, there are many other nations which speak English (well, nearly English!) so language cannot be a determining factor of nationality either!!!
Clearly it is difficult to find any one trait common to all British – despite there being any number of factors which may apply to many British. Can these be considered sufficient? What percentage of the population needs to adhere to a criteria in order for it to be considered valid? 100%? Half? It would seem to me that anything less than 100% would be a generalisation not a definition. Perhaps one criteria in itself is insufficient as a definition, perhaps several need to be exhibited in unison, or several from a long list..?
If so, we could describe a British person as someone who:
- may or may not drink tea
- may or may not speak English
- may or may not carry an umbrella
- may or may not live in the UK
…on the basis of which pretty-much anyone could be British! If there is no common factor to all, then there is no definable element to verify.
And yet, there is a factor common to all British people… only one, but it is one that applies to each and every British people… trite as it may sound, all British people are British…
That’s it!
The only single factor common to all British people is that they are British! (At a cursory glance, the same redundancy would appear to hold true for every other nationality too!)
If then the only thing you need to be British is to be British, what can possibly justify treating any person of any nationality differently to any other because of their nationality? Travel Visas and Work Permits are all based on one’s nationality, and yet this is clearly a meaningless label that we apply. After all, if everyone in the world was simply given a British passport, everyone in the world would suddenly and magically become British!
Perhaps in a world which continues to display a trend towards nationalistic and inward-looking policies, we should remember that in fact our national identities are intangible at best and erroneous at worst. Without a meaningful and measurable definition, any prejudgements we make are merely assumptions – and an assumption is an unproven bias and is thus unfair.
Right, time for a cuppa…