What’s The Exact Difference Between Ethnicity And Nationality

We all are born on the planet Earth, but all of us require some sort of identity to represent ourselves to others. From which part of the globe you belong? Are you an American or Indian? Or do you belong to some other country? The first and the foremost thing is your motherland, where were you born? What is your origin? All these things play a very important role in person’s life.

Nationality And Its Definition

As parents name their children and give them an identity by which they would then be called. In a similar way, one’s origin decides to which nationality a person is from. Do not just take it as a common term because nationality is a feeling which inculcates the respect for the motherland on which a person is born. A person’s nationality helps, he or she to develop patriotic feelings for the country.

Nationality can be defined as the status emerging from the fact of individual’s origin or birthplace. In order words, it can be described as the identity of a large group of people who have a legal connection and personal allegiance to a specific place.

Example:

If a person is born in India, then he or she will have Indian nationality and not an American Nationality.

Importance of Nationality

I can proudly say I am an Indian. Similarly, you can also speak about your legal attachment, the place you were born. When a person goes out to represent his or her country, ethnicity is not important. It does not matter whether you are a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jain, or Sikhs. What matters is your nationality whether you are an Indian, American, African, Korean or someone else.

Terrorist Are Ethnic Or National?

Feeling one’s country as his or her own, respecting it for what it is, loving it unconditionally and proudly declaring your nationality is a matter of dignity. You might have heard of a popular saying terrorist does not have nationality nor they have ethnicity. Have you ever wondered it why?

It’s because they do not have a patriotic feeling for their country nor for their religion. They do not know the meaning of humanity, love, care for anyone. They are considered to be heartless. Right from the mother's womb, when a baby comes out in the world, right teachings and moral education help him or her in understanding the correct meaning of life, humanity religion and the country.

Ethnicity And Its Definition

You may now be thinking about what is ethnicity then? Ethnicity is the identification of a person on the basis of particular racial, cultural, religious group.

Example:

India is the only country in the world which is known for having a diverse group of people with different ethnicities which include Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Rajasthani, Assamese, Bihari, and so on.

Ethnicity VS Nationality

An ethnicity is a group of persons who regard themselves as different from others. They differ in traditional, behavioral, linguistic, ritualistic and religious traits.

On the other hand, nationality does not pertain to these characteristics because all are equal under the head of a nation. There is no caste, and creed discrimination in case of nationality. In Spite of having varied diversity all are treated as one.

Some key differences between nationality and ethnicity are:

1) Meaning

Nationality is referred to as the national identity of a person while ethnicity reflects the cultural and ancestral identity of a person.

2) Relationship

Nationality can be termed as the relationship between a person and the political state of the country where he or she has the legal rights. Whereas ethnicity is a group of people who are identified on the basis of heritage and ancestors.

3) Arises

Nationality arises patriotic feelings whereas ethnicity arises a feeling of racism. Nowadays ethnicity is not used because it had an adverse impact on the people’s life.

4) Background

Ethnicity arises from a person’s ethnic background while nationality arises from the person’s geographical location.

5) Concepts

Nationality has a legal concept whereas ethnicity has a cultural concept.

So now, you might have learned ample of knowledge about the most misinterpreted terms ethnicity and nationality.