According to Webster’s dictionary nationality is defined as:
1. a group of people who share the same history, traditions, and language, and who usually live together in a particular country
2. the fact or status of being a member or citizen of a particular nation
Therefore according to that definition nationality can change based on where a person lives. So for example, I was born AND raised in Jamaica but my current US Passport lists my nationality as United States BUT my place of birth as Jamaica.
The real underlying question is really “what makes a person Jamaican?” Am I Jamaican just because I eat curry goat, mannish water, and enjoy reggae? I would say no, because many people who were not born in Jamaica enjoy those things and more. Am I Jamaican because I can speak patois? Again, I would say no for the same reason. Am I Jamaican because I fully understand all of our cultural nuances, history, music, internal jokes? Perhaps, but a foreigner who lives there long enough can also pick it up. Am I Jamaican because I was born there and my very atoms were pulled together on Jamaican soil? Legally perhaps, but someone who was born in Jamaica on vacation and whose parents immediately took them back to Sweden could also lay claim to Jamaican citizenship. I would argue that it’s a combination of ALL of the above that contributes to me being a Jamaica. Not only was I born there and raised there, but my parents were born and raised there, and their parents before them. Physically AND culturally, I am Jamaican.
A person who is 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation removed from Jamaica may share certain cultural characteristics with me but I would not consider them to be Jamaican. That of course is not a popular opinion with those who were not born and raised there but it is equivalent to what many whites do in the US by laying claim to the fractions of a percent of their heritage e.g., when they say I’m 1/4 Irish or 1/16 Native American.
As a Jamaican living in the States I understand the desire to belong to a distinctive cultural group and I embrace any Jamaican who shares a Jamaican Heritage but there is a difference. According to Webster’s, heritage can be defined as:
the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation
When I was in the Caribbean club on campus and we had to put on cultural events, it was ALWAYS the Jamaicans who were born and raised there who had to teach/explain to the numerous Jamaican-Americans our cultural dances and songs and even in many cases the patois that goes along with it. They may have had the flag and the framework but not the nuances of our culture.
